The Babysitting Mission
by Smex Lemur
Summary: Bad at summaries.. but I'll try. Kakashi recieves a new mission. He has to keep an eye on Iruka and his class after they got attacked. Is it good or bad for Kakashi? He has no idea! Yaoi KakaIru
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Naruto.**

A/N: HIIIII! This is my first Naruto fanfic, and my first yaoi so I'll do my best XD I'd love to hear your reviews, but please no flaming You can tell me if it's bad, but no flaming.. flaming is a nono.

Rated M for language and future scenes, ya? Ok, enjoy

**Chapter 1**

"You're late," Iruka said calmly from behind his desk, while organising the reports other ninja's had given him.

"I know, am I in trouble now?" The silver-haired Jounin answered, smiling mischievously (Iruka snorted, he didn't really want to answer that question), while reading one of his Icha Icha novels. Oh Lord, why did he have to read those? Iruka's mind started to wonder what was so interesting about it… maybe he could buy one, just to see if it's really that- No, Iruka shook his head. He wasn't interested in dirty novels like that. He didn't look at the Jounin, but he heard he was taking something out of his pocket. Iruka quickly looked at him. The man had some scratches on him, probably from today's mission, his messy, silver hair had some dirt in it and the usual mask in front of his face seemed to have been a bit worn out. He supposed that the little piece of paper was the report he had been waiting for (it seemed to him like it was crammed into his pocket twenty times). Well, he couldn't ask for more, he was glad he even had a report. Though it was starting to get on his nerves. That was Hatake Kakashi for you- always late, always messy, always arrogant. The three things Iruka hated the most.

"Would you mind telling me _why _you were late?" Iruka asked, obviously irritated. Kakashi looked thoughtfully before walking calmly to Iruka's desk. He grabbed a chair and sat on it. It reminded Iruka of some of his students whenever they had done something wrong and he was about to punish them.

"Well, see, that's a very interesting story," he grinned at the brown-haired man (probably waiting for a reply), who was still busy organising the reports. He already had organised them of course, but Iruka wanted to have something to keep him busy while talking to Kakashi (he was afraid he would throw him out of a window if he didn't). He snorted.

"Bet it's gonna be one of your lame excuses again, like you always give me," he took the piece of paper from Kakashi (who looked rather hurt by Iruka's comment), and looked at it. For a moment, Kakashi thought he would explode- his cheeks turned red, a vein on his forehead started to become visible… "You're telling me," he said slowly, trying to control his temper, "that I waited 2 hours for this report, and the only thing you have written on it is "the mission was a success, we had ramen afterwards to celebrate"?" Kakashi looked at him cheerfully.

"Yup, but that's not all! See, Sakura doodled something on it, I think it looks like me drinking some sake and-"

"KAKASHI!" Iruka bellowed. "Get. Out. Before. Kunai. Through your head." He tried to remain calm, he really did, but that Kakashi just got on his nerves. It was his own fault really.

Kakashi just raised his shoulders and shrugged. "Fine," he said. "I was going to ask you if you'd like to come with me and a couple of friends to the bar, but I guess not then." No, that was the last thing Iruka wanted, drinking with a man he hated. "Later," he said, while standing up and raising two fingers as a sign of goodbye, like he always did.

"Kakashi! Wait!" Kakashi turned around, he seemed to be smiling (though you could never tell as his mask was in the way).

"Ah, so you want to drink with me after all, huh? It's okay, you can admit it." Kakashi was only teasing him of course, but it was so much fun seeing the Chuunin getting red and angry.

"No, I was going to say that I expect a new report tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. sharp. And if you're late I will take this matter to the fifth Hokage and I'm sure you wouldn't want _that _to happen, now would you?" Kakashi just shrugged again.

"Whatever, see you tomorrow then," he replied, and walked away. Iruka opened his mouth to say something else, but shut it again. Threats were useless on this one.

Xxxxxxxxx

"Arg, where is he!" Iruka said out loud, looking at his watch. 8:05. Too late, again. And at this rate, Iruka would be too late for class as well. While Iruka was cursing and swearing, Kakashi stood right outside the office, listening to the rather creative words Iruka was using. He chuckled briefly, before entering the office as his cheerful self.

"Yo," he said, raising two fingers as a greeting. "Got that report you wanted, shouldn't you be teaching that class of yours?" Iruka felt his temper boiling again. Why was it that he couldn't control his temper when he was around? It just didn't make any sense.

Sure, Iruka was known for his temper, but no one ever brought out this side of Iruka as often as Kakashi did.

Iruka quickly grabbed the report.

"Thank you," he said, clutching the paper with his both hands. "And yes," he continued. "I DO have class, that's why I asked you to be on time for a change. But I guess you can't even do that." Kakashi glanced at him, while he was reading the report, approved it and put it on his desk. "Good, I've got to go." Iruka quickly grabbed his bag from the desk and ran to the school, without saying goodby to Kakashi.

Xxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

The Fifth was sitting quietly behind her desk, trying to figure out which ANBU to send out on one of the more dangerous missions, when she suddenly heard a loud 'pop' coming from the middle of the room. As she was trained well, she immediately took a kunai and threw it at the intruder without even looking at him first.

"Well, aren't we a bit paranoid?" Tsunade looked a bit closer and saw Kakashi standing in the room. She noticed she only just missed him. Not that he would let himself get hit of course- a brilliant ninja like him wouldn't let himself get hit so easily. Tsunade only meant the kunai as a diversion of course, if he hadn't spoken, she would've called the guards standing outside her office.

"Damnit, Kakashi!" She shouted, realising he had been wanting to scare her on purpose. "Why can't you use the damn door for a change?"

"Because then it wouldn't be funny anymore." Kakashi chuckled, amused by his own joke as always. "You said you wanted to see me?"

"Yes," the Fifth started to relax a little bit. "You heard about yesterday? Well, stupid question, the whole village knows about it!" Kakashi looked puzzled at the Fifth Hokage, apparently not know what she was talking about. She sighed. "You're even worse than I thought, Kakashi. You know Umuino Iruka, I hope?" Kakashi nodded, thinking about yesterday and the day before. He knew the Chuunin didn't really like him, and Kakashi had been starting to dislike him a bit as well. "Good, at least you know that much," she continued. "He was taking his class to the lake yesterday and got attacked by a group of missing Ninja. He was able to fight them off with the help of his assistant."

"Anyone got hurt?"

"Iruka had a kunai through his leg and one kid tried to run away- I think it was someone from the Hyuuga clan- and got a blow on the head, nothing serious, but that was all. I must say Iruka put up a pretty good fight against seven missing ninja. Well, anyway, the missing ninja got away eventually. That's why I wanted you to keep an eye on Iruka for a while. Not only Iruka of course, but his class too. Iruka is strong, but there are a lot of children involved too and we need to protect the next generation of shinobi." Kakashi looked rather confused.

"Ehm, can I refuse this mission? I don't like being a babysitter…"

"No, you can't and it's not babysitting"- Kakashi snorted, watching over a bunch of midgets certainly did seem like babysitting to him - ", I think you're the right man for the job, and it's only for a little while until we can find those missing ninja, though it is rather unlikely they'll return." The silver-haired man looked at her, knowing she wouldn't change her mind. _Damn women, _he thought. Tsunade continued, she wasn't gonna let him off the hook. She knew he was going to protest, but he would do this mission, whether he liked it or not. "Keep in mind that this is a secret mission, not even Iruka may know why you're following him."

"What? Why not?"

"He's a very proud man and I don't think he would allow you watching over him. He would come here and complain, and I don't have time for that."

"Well, how do you expect me to keep an eye on him while he can't even know I'm keeping an eye on him? He's gonna find out sooner or later that I'm tailing him." _Better that he'd find out sooner, or else I'll be the one to get a kunai through my head, _Kakashi thought, highly annoyed by this mission.

"Maybe you could make friends with Iruka? Iruka has been keeping a little to himself lately, except for Naruto, he didn't exactly hang out with anyone I heard, and now that Naruto is gone… yes, I do believe that is the best decision," she said cheerfully, not noticing the angry face Kakashi made (not that she would see it of course, since he still has that mask).

"Fine," he muttered. "I'll try." The only reason why he took the door out of the office that one time, was so he could slam it. Hard.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

_Not too long after that_

Now, why did he have to babysit again? Oh no, wait, it wasn't babysitting. It was _protecting._ Kakashi snorted at this, as he walked to Iruka's apartment, one hand in his pocket and the other hand holding one of his porn novels. Or, as Kakashi always said, his adult fiction novels. The apartment building was rather small, but it was probably big enough for Iruka (after all, he did live by himself).

"Let's see, what number was it again? Either 9 or 11." Kakashi walked past number 9 and listened to the door. A woman was screaming her lungs out, probably mad at her husband for something. "Nope, that ones not it, at least I hope it's not Iruka's, that woman would even scare me!" He said cheerfully to himself, knocking on number 11. The door opened and Kakashi saw Iruka standing in the doorway, rather confused. He was pretty surprised to see Iruka's hair- it wasn't in the usual ponytail, but it hang loose. It just barely reached his shoulders now. And it was still wet, so Kakashi figured he just got out of the shower.

For a few seconds, they stared at eachother. Iruka wondering why Kakashi was standing in front his apartment, Kakashi was wondering why Iruka was staring at him. "Eh," he said. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in having some lunch with me today." What? Lunch? Kakashi slapped himself in his mind. That sounded more like a date than a male-bonding-type-thingie, what was he thinking? Now that he thought about it- what did guys do together? He didn't even know… maybe he could lend Iruka one of his Icha Icha novels, that certainly was a male-thing. Iruka kept staring at him.

"Well," Iruka said, doubting. "Eh, sure, I just gotta finish grading some papers, but yeah. I was planning on getting some ramen anyway." Kakashi, who already had stopped listening, glanced over Iruka's shoulders into the apartment. Pushing Iruka aside, he let himself in. "Hey!" Of all the impudent students he ever had, Kakashi was ten times worse.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: W00t, I got reviews, and they're actually good! Thanks! XD Chapter 2.. I think this ones better than chappie 1, please R&R! 

Chapter 2

_About a half hour later _

"What are we going to eat again?" Kakashi asked for the tenth time, driving Iruka mad. It was bad enough he simply had pushed him aside (which was a little embarrassing, since he seemed to do it with ease) and entered his apartment without asking, but now he was constantly nagging and complaining and just.. well, just being annoying. Not that that was anything different from the usual Kakashi, but still. Why did Iruka went for lunch with him?

"For the twelve-hundredth time, we are going to get some ramen! God, why did you ask me for lunch anyway? You don't seem to enjoy yourself at all."

"It's your fault!" Kakashi replied. "You're the one being boring… besides, I don't like ramen that much." Iruka let out a deep sigh, let the anger wash away, before he could answer that.

"Then why," he spoke slowly again, as if talking to one of his students. "Didn't you say that before?" Kakashi seemed to smile, at least Iruka thought that he was smiling (it was hard to see with that mask), when he looked up at Kakashi.

"Because it's so much fun to get on peoples nerves," Kakashi simply replied. Iruka looked irritated again.

"Well, I don't like it," he said. "I think I'm gonna have a migraine after lunch because of you… but we're still getting ramen. We're here," Iruka noticed, entering the little restaurant. They ordered some ramen and sat down. "So, why is it exactly you want to have lunch with me? I mean, the only time we ever talk is at the mission's office when I hand you your mission or you give me your report, so what's going on?

"Hmm," Kakashi replied, trying to think of something. He usually was pretty good at coming up with excuses, though his talent seemed to have disappeared somehow.

"Is there a reason?" Reason? Yeah, Tsunade said I should follow- No, wait, he couldn't say that.

"Hmm," he replied again. "No, not really. You just seemed like a nice guy and the Third always said I should try to make some friends around the village. So guess you're stuck with me." He grinned behind his mask, his visible eye crinkling a bit. Well, that wasn't too hard and part of it was even true (the Third really had said that he should find some friends). "So, I heard about what happened yesterday in the forest. Is that why you aren't teaching today?"

"Yeah, they gave me and the class the day off, to get the chance to relax a bit. I have to go back tomorrow though, since nobody really got hurt." Kakashi nodded.

"What happened then? I only heard some rumours. You won't believe how people can change the story- I heard Gai say that there were twenty missing ninja and you killed them with only one kunai and one hand in your pocket, after drinking two bottles of sake!" Iruka broke into a laugh, before looking very serious at Kakashi.

"Well, who says that didn't actually happen?" Kakashi glared at him. "Alright, I'll tell you then, though I am kinda getting tired of telling the story (since every single parent of my students had to hear it too). We went to the lake for swimming ( a ninja needs to relax sometimes, too) and I was lecturing Konohamaru and his gang about not jumping off the cliffs when I suddenly saw something moving in a tree. Before I knew it, we were all surrounded by seven missing ninja. Everybody was scared, of course, but luckily an assistant went to the bathroom right before that and I guess they didn't exactly know there was somebody else. Anyway, when I saw the assistant - Meko by the way- hiding in the bushes, I attacked the biggest one with a kunai I was holding. I was aiming for his neck of course, but I knew he would see it on time. He got hit in the shoulder, luckily, and it appeared he wasn't able to fight - with that little diversion, Meko was able to take down two more while I was trying to keep the others away from the children. I took out one more with a shuriken, but while I was doing that, I got one in my leg. There were only three left and they gave up after seeing we had taken more than half of them down. Those three escaped, the big guy is in prison right now, one is dead and two were wounded pretty badly, but they're in the prison's hospital."

"And the Hyuuga-girl?" Iruka thought for a moment.

"Oh right, forgot about her. I guess she just panicked, while Meko and I were fighting, she ran away from the group and got hit on the head by one of the missing nin. She's still in the hospital, but they say she'll be alright." While Iruka had told the whole story to Kakashi, the waiter had already given them their ramen and they had started eating. Iruka tried to look at Kakashi while he was eating - to see if he could see his face whenever he took a bite- but amazingly enough, the man couldn't even see part of his nose, let alone see his whole face.

"Any idea why they attacked?" Kakashi was rather interested in the story, he had to admit.

"Well, I suppose they wanted ransom for the kids, that's the only logical explanation, but I don't know." He grinned again. "Or maybe some big shot thought I was a threat and wanted to kill me." Kakashi ignored this, looking rather bored (Iruka really thought the man didn't have a sense of humour).

"So, you going into the forest again soon?" Kakashi asked him, after finishing his ramen.

"Yeah, I suppose we have to," Kakashi glared at him, waiting to get a reason from Iruka. "First of all, the kids are obviously afraid of going into the forest again, so they need to get over that fear. It seems pretty hard, but if they don't, it'll get even harder to enter the forest again." The silver-haired man nodded- he agreed on that. "Besides that," Iruka gave him a grin. "I never had the chance to swim myself." Kakashi smiled (Iruka noticed this by the way his eye crinkled slightly). He kind of started to like the Jounin, crazy as it sounds. He was somehow different than the Kakashi he knew from the mission's office and the annoying Kakashi who actually put his students in the chuunin exam, something Iruka knew they hadn't been ready for.

"When are you going?" Kakashi took a sip from his sake and again he was able to hide his face, damn him.

"Probably tomorrow- or the day after that, I'm not exactly sure, depends on the weather I suppose." Kakashi nodded. He hesitated a moment, decided he wasn't going to ask Iruka if he could come with them (he would seem like a stalker and he didn't want that, it was way more easier to just follow them) and stood up from his seat.

"This was nice Iruka," he said, giving the man a smile (again, Iruka could see it because of his eye crinkling). "I have to be somewhere now, so we'll do this again. Later," he raised two fingers and walked out of the restaurant. Iruka had expected it to go pretty bad, but all in all, Kakashi was a pretty nice guy.

"Here's your bill," the waiter said, putting the bill next to Iruka's empty bowl. He had just realised Kakashi had left him with the bill. Damn that Jounin.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

"Alright," Kakashi said to himself, settling himself in a tree. He had a perfect view of Iruka's classroom from the branch he was sitting on, and even if Iruka wouldn't go into the forest, he still had his new Make Out Paradise novel he had been wanting to read. He was actually hoping he would be able to read, since sitting in a tree on a hot day in the forest, looking at others swimming in the cool water wasn't really any fun. Maybe he should've asked Iruka if he could come, but Kakashi figured it was too late for that now.

Iruka was sitting behind his desk, while the class slowly filled with little children- maybe 8 years old-, settling themselves on their regular places. When everybody -besides Hyuuga Aiko, who was still in the hospital for observation- was sitting quietly, Iruka opened a window (Kakashi was pleased by this, as he could listen now) and walked to the blackboard.

He sighed slightly, seeing the faces of his beloved students again. "I want to talk to you about what happened in the forest," he said to them, looking very serious at them. Konohamaru was whispering something, but after one angry glance from his teacher, he quickly focused on him instead. "I know you were all frightened by those missing nin, but I want to take you all out to swim again." The class was very silent, not knowing how to react to this news. On the one hand, they were terribly afraid it would happen again but on the other they knew they couldn't stay in the village forever. "So I want to go swimming this afternoon, I can't promise you everything will be okay from now on, 'cause I could never guarantee that. However, I can promise you that I will protect you all no matter what happens and I won't let them hurt any of you as long as I live." The kids seemed to get a little more cheerful, hearing this from their teacher. "So," Iruka looked around his classroom. "You wanna go swimming?" For a while, nobody spoke and Iruka was starting to get worried they really didn't want to go back.

"Heck yeah, sensei!" The brown-haired man smiled. It was Konohamaru who had spoken first, while standing up from his seat. He somehow reminded him a bit of Naruto- just as determined, just as hyperactive, just as loud. After Konohamaru's outburst, the rest of the class started to mumble a bit. Iruka grinned- they were braver than he thought. He could hear some boys already talking about waterfights and jumping off cliffs (though their 'boring teacher' would probably stop them from doing so), some were still a bit anxious on going, but they didn't want to seem scared so they agreed on going too.

"Good, then let's get our things and go!" Kakashi chuckled, looking down at the man. His students really trusted him and even respected him, something Kakashi hadn't managed when training Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Well, maybe Sakura just a bit, but Naruto and Sasuke still called him an 'idiot' and 'asshole' before they went away. He even envied Iruka a bit.

Kakashi shrugged and put his book back in his pocket. Guess he wouldn't be able to read today.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Not long after that_

Where are they? He couldn't believe he actually lost a group of eight year olds and a chuunin, who were simply walking. They weren't even running! He really did have to start training again…

"Guess I just have to go to the lake then, I'll see 'em there," Kakashi mumbled. He wasn't really taking his mission seriously, something he actually should do. It was after all a mission from the Hokage, but still he found it to be a rather useless one. "Ah, there they are," he said to himself, as he was jumping on a tree, rather close to the lake. He saw the children already in their swimming suits, some had probably even forgotten all about the missing nin now that they were there having fun. After a few seconds Kakashi saw Iruka coming from behind some bushes, with his trunks on. The Jounin chuckled- was he scared of being seen by anyone? Kakashi thought about that thought… and came to the conclusion it was probably a smart thing, changing behind the bushes.

"Sensei!" A small, black-haired girl followed by two boys ran up to Iruka and hid behind his legs, looking for shelter from the boys. "They want to throw me into the water!" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well Fuuko, isn't that the whole point of swimming, getting in the water?" He laughed as the girl shook her head, before lifting her up and taking her to the lake. The girl tried to resist, but she was no match for her sensei. He threw her in (she was screaming of course) and then before he knew it, the rest of his class were all over him, trying to push him into the water too. And in the end they succeeded, while Kakashi watched them and grinned and smiled and chuckled at the sight of Iruka being pushed into the water by a group of midgets.

However, while Kakashi was laughing, he didn't notice Iruka who was holding a kunai after he stood up. While he was in the water, he saw someone sitting in a big tree nearby- someone with silver hair and a mask on, someone very familiar. He didn't want to hit him with the kunai of course, just frighten him a bit, maybe make him fall out of the tree and then ask him why he was stalking him and his class.

"What the-" Kakashi yelled, after the kunai hit the tree, right next to his head. He was so shocked that at this, that he lost his grip and fell into the bushes below. The kids seeing this, were of course afraid at first, since they thought it was another attack.

"Don't worry kids, it's just a scarecrow," Iruka laughed, looking at the cursing Kakashi, getting out of the bushes. "You know, when you're following someone you should really try looking for a better hiding place." He pointed out to him, while walking towards the silver-haired man, offering him his hand. The Jounin took it.

"It was good, until you saw me," he muttered, a bit embarrassed by his fall.

"So would you mind telling me why you're following me?" Iruka asked, taking out his "Watch It Or I'll Give You A Detention"- face. Kakashi thought about it. And thought about it some more. And he really couldn't find any excuse.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! I really appreciate it! I try to keep the guys in character… I don't know if I do a good job with it, but I do my best XD Like I said, I never made a Naruto fanfic before.. and this is also my first yaoi o.o… So njah, I'll try to update as much as I can (I actually finished chapter 4 as well, but I just want to see how many reviews I can get for this chappie… yes, I am evil -grins-)

Something to kakashidiot: formatting? o.o... I'm sorry, I really am dumb with stuff like that, so I have no idea what you mean with that XD -slaps herself-

Enjoy!

**Chapter 3**

_Where we left…_

"So would you mind telling me why you're following me and my class around?" Iruka asked the Jounin, who was busy with wiping some dirt off his clothes. He really seemed ridiculous with the leaves in his hair and the mud and dirt on his vest from the fall- Iruka had to try hard not to laugh.

"Ehm…" He couldn't think of anything- perhaps that fall gave him a concussion or something, which altered his brilliant mind and ability to think of a clever excuse… yes, that was it. His mind started to wonder, and now that he saw Iruka a bit closer, he glanced shortly at his upper body, which was pretty damn muscular. He was wet from the fall in the lake and he had several scars on his chest (though not quite as many as Kakashi had), one of which stopped right under his neck and- Okay, he just slapped himself in his mind, trying to get himself away from those thoughts. This was a mission and he should stay with that.

"And? Haven't thought about an excuse yet?" He glared at the silver-haired man, who was still wiping some dirt of his vest. He looked at the Chuunin, before finally answering his question.

"I was worried about the kids," he said, after a while, getting a leaf out of his messy, silver hair. He figured _that_ wasn't really lying, since there was someone worried about them… and he had to watch them. "So I followed you to the forest, so I could keep an eye out for you." Iruka raised an eyebrow.

"You were keeping an eye out for us and yet you were chuckling over my fall? That doesn't sound like watching for enemies to me." Damn that man, why did he have to be such a smart ass?

"Yeah, well," Kakashi started. "It was hard _not_ to notice since you were all screaming at the top of your lungs. I swear, if these are the next generation of ninja, it's gonna look very bad for the village." Iruka looked thoughtfully at him for a moment, then grinned. Payback time!

"Alright children, I have a mission for you!" Iruka clapped his hands to get their attention. The kids, who had already returned to swimming (they weren't really interested in the Jounin, who didn't look that impressing anyway), looked up at their sensei, before jumping out of the water and gathering around him. Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow- this didn't look good. "Good," Iruka looked at them. "Your mission is to get Kakashi-sensei into the water! You may do whatever you need to do to get him there! GO!" He bellowed his last word, and before Kakashi could even jump up the tree, there were already three children hanging from his legs, trying to keep him from running. Surprised by the sudden 'attack', he looked down and saw the three kids grinning up at him, very pleased that he wasn't able to get away from them, and before he knew it, the little boy called Konohamaru was hanging on his neck. The rest of the class quickly gathered around him, pulling and pushing him towards the water and they actually succeeded a bit- he was already very near the lake. For a moment, Kakashi looked angry towards Iruka, who was now lying on the ground with his arms around his stomach, laughing at the sight of the Jounin, who was looking very silly with all those kids hanging on him.

Not wanting to make a fool out of himself (after all, they were midgets!), Kakashi regained his strength and tried to pull Konohamaru from his neck, without hurting him of course. He gave out a roar and pulled him over his head, threw him and- it failed. Konohamaru (who had by far the most potential of the whole group, but was just way too lazy) had grabbed the arm he was being thrown with and stick to it. Several boys and girls ( about five of them, though Kakashi could've sworn there were ten of them), jumped on his back now that Konohamaru was hanging from his arm, which forced Kakashi to fall down and from that point on, Kakashi knew he had been defeated. By a bunch of midgets. Very small midgets, who barely had stopped sucking their thumbs.

They finally dragged him to the water and before he knew it, he was wet and was being held down by the kids. They yelled and screamed and cheered when he went under water and they all looked at their sensei, to see if he saw they had completed their mission successfully.

"Good job everyone!" Iruka said, between laughs. He had tears in his eyes from the laughter and he had to laugh even harder when Kakashi came out from the water, his silver hair that was usually very messy was now hanging down and the look in his eyes would've scared Iruka… if he hadn't been laughing so much.

"That," Kakashi was standing in front of Iruka. "Was very, very, very, _very_ mean." Iruka finally stopped laughing- well, almost stopped laughing, he still had to grin.

"That," he replied, grinning from ear to ear. "Was my revenge." Kakashi eyed him, a bit confused by this. "Because you left me with the bill yesterday!" Iruka said, throwing his hands in the air. He was a bit surprised the Jounin had forgotten about it already. Kakashi scratched his head.

"Oh, right," he said, giving him a smile. "Forgot about that," he muttered. Konohamaru came standing next to Iruka, and pointed to Kakashi, looking very pleased.

"We kicked his butt, sensei!" He said loudly, as if he had done it all by himself. "So what's our reward?" Iruka thought about that for a while.

"Hm, so you want a reward, eh?" Konohamaru nodded hopefully, and so did the other kids. Iruka grinned again. Kakashi was starting to like Iruka's grin- it was so amazingly dopey, it somehow always made him smile too. "Well, as a reward, you won't be getting any pop quizzes this week!" The children's smiles faded.

"That's not a reward, we wouldn't get any pop quizzes this week! That's what you said last week!" Iruka grinned, while scratching his scar and looking at Kakashi. The younger man clapped his hands again, trying to get the kids' attention (they were still saying things like "you gotta pay us!" or "we want a day off from school tomorrow!"). They stopped talking eventually and looked at him, still a bit angry of course.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today. Everybody change into your clothes and we'll head back to school!" The children started to gather their clothes and towels and started changing (even though they were a bit disappointed). Iruka looked back at Kakashi. "Well, as you can see we are fine on our own," he smirked. "And the kids can even beat Konoha's Copy Ninja, so I think we'll be fine." Iruka looked at Kakashi for a second, who was actually blushing behind his mask. Apparently, he was still embarrassed about today and the brown-haired man started to feel a little sorry for him. He was after all a Jounin and not only that- he was the famous Copy Ninja, and today he had fallen from a tree when a Chuunin threw a kunai at him and to make matters worse he was thrown into the water by Iruka's own little army. He thought about it for a while, before saying: "Well, since I did embarrass you two times today, I think I should make it up to you. Ramen?" Iruka smiled at Kakashi while scratching the scar on his nose. The Jounin was taken aback by this offer. He thought about it for a moment, figured he didn't have anything to do anyway (plus it was his mission to look after Iruka for a while) and nodded. "Good! Well, I first have to back to class though, but I'll meet you at the same restaurant at 5, kay?" Kakashi nodded again, before Iruka went back to the bushes with his clothes and changed too.

Five minutes later the kids and Iruka were walking back to the village, still talking about how they threw the famous Jounin into the water. Kakashi had disappeared suddenly, after Iruka went into the bushes, so the teacher figured he just went back to the village.

This wasn't the case though, Kakashi was still looking at them from up a tree. This time a little more careful with hiding.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_At the restaurant_

Iruka waited. And waited. Then waited some more. He was late. Late, late, late. Well, not that he hadn't expected this from the Jounin, but still, it was highly annoying.

"Yo," Kakashi came in the restaurant, raising two fingers.

"You're late," Iruka grumbled, taking a sip from his third cup of coffee. "Late, late, late," he repeated the word 'late' as he had done in his mind.

"I think one 'late' is enough, thank you," Kakashi replied, settling himself in a chair. "You won't believe what happened!" Iruka snorted at this.

"No, I probably won't," he gave a sign to one of the waitresses that he was finally ready to order (they kept returning to ask him if he had made his choice, so after a while he just decided to keep buying coffee until Kakashi would show up).

"Guess I should stick to 'I was lost' then?" Iruka nodded. "Alright, I was lost," he said nonchalantly. Now that he thought about it, he actually did have a reason for being late, but he was so used to lying whenever he was, he just blurted out excuses. "Wait," he quickly said. "Actually, I do have a reason!" Iruka raised an eyebrow- this ought to be good. "You see, on my way back from the lake, I saw Gai training with his team and he challenged me like always, so I was still busy with that." Kakashi smiled, his good eye crinkling a bit.

"So, did you win?"

"Of course I did! I wish he would give it a rest, we all know who the most feared ninja is of course," Kakashi grinned, obviously implying himself .

"Yeah, I guess. Gai certainly is kind of scary," Iruka replied, laughing at Kakashi's face (or at least the part that he could see, he still had that mask!). After they had eaten their ramen (Kakashi had said he didn't like ramen, but Iruka started to question this statement), two Jounin Iruka and Kakashi both knew came in. "Genma! Asuma!" Iruka held his hand up, so the two could see them. They waved back, ordered and sat with them.

"Iruka," Genma said cheerfully, senbon in his mouth as always. "And Kakashi, how's it going?" Kakashi mumbled, "pretty good", before Genma turned to Iruka again. "Haven't seen you at the mission's office lately, you still work there, right?" Iruka nodded.

"Yup, but only in weekends now, since I got pretty busy with teaching. It doesn't really matter though, I heard things were going rather slow." Meanwhile, Asuma started to talk to Kakashi a bit. Kakashi, who really wasn't used to this much social interaction, decided it was time to get out of the restaurant. He wanted to read anyway.

"Well," he said, standing up. "I've gotta go. Later," he raised two fingers, giving Iruka a quick look, before turning and walking out of the restaurant.

"So, what's up with you and Kakashi?" Genma asked, looking a bit curious. "I mean, I know Kakashi never really hangs out with anyone." Iruka shook his head.

"Don't know, one minute he's irritating the hell out me, the next he's trying to be my friend. I went to the forest today with my class to go swimming and he actually followed me and hid in a tree. Honestly, Jounin are completely crazy," Iruka concluded. Genma and Asuma laughed.

"You know what I think," Asuma said, grinning. "I think our little Kakashi has a crush on someone." Iruka looked at him, confused. What the hell did that have to do with Iruka?

"Who?" Asuma and Genma stared at him for a moment.

"You!" They both rolled their eyes at the oblivious Chuunin and laughed. Iruka only raised an eyebrow. "Well, it could be true you know," Genma continued, looking thoughtfully at Iruka. "I mean, you're not that bad, if I was a woman I'd-"

"That's enough!" Iruka quickly shouted, turning bright red. "I think I'm going now, I need to finish some paperwork anyway and I have to grade papers, clean my apartment, wash some clothes- anyway, I don't have time to stay here and listen to your lame jokes!" Iruka stood up and said goodbye to the laughing Jounin. Damn them.

"You know," Asuma said afterwards, rubbing his chin and lighting a cigarette. "I wasn't exactly joking…" The looked at each other for a moment, before laughing again.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: I got the idea of the swimming in the lake part from a fanfic called "the Kakashi Mission", same goes for Kakashi actually falling into the lake... ( I don't remember who wrote the fic, but I believe it's on as well, so you should really check it out if you like KakaIru!), I really tried to make it very different and I think I did that pretty well, but I got the ideas from that fic since I really thought that was a wonderful story XD. Just so you know!

Anyhoo, R&R please! I'd like to know what you all think!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews everyone! Chapter 4.. hehehe… XD Well, you just ought to read it. Iruka and Kakashi will get together.. someday… not yet… but they're getting closer! Or maybe they're not… you can find it out if you keep reading and reviewing, kay? XDD**

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**I used the name 'Chuunaru', because I think it means loyal in japanese.**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Saturday..._

He hadn't seen the Jounin yesterday, which was a good thing, since he was kind of worried that he would go broke if he kept having lunch or dinner with the man. Though he did like Kakashi's company- somehow they always found something to talk about (though Kakashi always tried to talk about his Icha Icha- novels, which Iruka wouldn't allow). They mostly talked about team 7, and when they talked about team 7, they mostly talked about Naruto. Iruka had always liked the young boy, who looked a lot like him when it came to personality. Though Iruka never remembered himself to be so loud… "Alright, here's your mission," he handed a scroll to the Chuunin in front of him. It wasn't a hard one, just a simple D-ranked mission, but since things had started to get rather slow, Iruka mostly had D-ranked, a couple of C-ranked and a few B-ranked missions. No A this week.

He was about to hand the last mission - B - when he suddenly heard a familiar voice. "I'll take this one," Someone took the scroll from Iruka. He looked up and saw the silver-haired man, with the usual mask and only one visible eye, smiling at him. "I need to get out anyway, haven't done any missions lately… and as you saw last Thursday… I really could use the training." Iruka grinned at him, scratching his scar again (which had become a bit of a habit for him). He never actually told the story of Kakashi's fall in the lake to anyone (he let Konohamaru handle that, since the first thing the little boy did was yelling to everyone _he_ had beaten Sharingan Kakashi), though it was a lot of fun thinking about it- it still cracked him up.

"Alright then Kakashi, good luck completing your mission. And don't forget your report!" He yelled to the Jounin, who jumped out of the window behind Iruka's desk. Iruka sighed- why did the man have to show off like that?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Not too long after that_

Kakashi was sitting in a tree, reading his mission. He knew Iruka was safe at the mission's office and since he didn't get out until 6 p.m. (yes, he had done his homework), Kakashi still had some time to finish a mission. On Friday Kakashi had been watching Iruka from the tree where he had the best view of Iruka's class. They didn't went out into the forest again, so he had some time to read his book, though he sometimes was eyeing the classroom, only to find himself staring at Iruka.

It really was amazing how the brown-haired man could get angry so easily, but as sudden as his anger came, it vanished and he was nice and happy Iruka again. He had to admit, it was rather funny watching the Chuunin teach. The window had been opened again so the Jounin could hear clearly what was going on inside the classroom and had to chuckle several times (softly of course, or the teacher was going to punish him again) when Iruka gave out threats to the children ("If you hyperactive monkeys keep at it like this I will make sure you won't leave your seat until you have finished a two-thousand word essay about the use of kunai's!", for example). But even when Iruka barked at them like that, the children still seemed to adore him. Kakashi noticed this little fact when a girl walked up to the sensei and gave him a flower, to thank him for protecting them from the missing nin. Several kids also asked how his leg was doing, looking sincerely concerned about him, which was very nice to watch.

Kakashi shrugged, rolled up his mission scroll and jumped off the tree, ready for his mission.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_That afternoon_

He was late. Again. Iruka sighed, looking at the clock. Well, he wasn't really late yet- not officially. He had until 6 p.m. so he still had five minutes left- however, something told him that Kakashi wouldn't be walking into the office within the next five minutes.

The minutes went by and still no sign of Kakashi. The man sighed- he had no intention of waiting any longer for him, so he grabbed his bag and filled it up with some papers he needed to sign, before heading towards the door. When he was closing the door and wanted to lock the office, something small and brown ran passed him. Iruka quickly looked, before he could clearly make out what just ran by him (it was moving very fast)- it was a very small dog, running towards the Hokage's office.

Not one minute later, the Godaime stormed out, looked at Iruka and figured he was good enough for the job. "Iruka!" She barked, trying to not sound worried (it kind of failed, she sounded rather panicked). "Go with Chuunaru, he says Kakashi is wounded and unable to get to the village by himself, he'll give you details on the way." The little dog eyed him, before running past his legs.

"Come on kid, we don't have that much time!" Iruka didn't hesitate, and followed the dog. He once had seen one of Kakashi's nin dogs, a pug named Pakkun, but he never knew Kakashi could summon others as well. "I can't tell you much," the dog said, while they went through the forest, jumping from tree to tree. "But Kakashi is near the village, so it shouldn't take us long to get there. He was able to summon me before he passed out and he looked pretty bad." Iruka nodded, though Chuunaru couldn't really see that.

After five minutes, the nin dog stopped and sniffed for the scent of his master. "Over there," he said, pointing to a nearby tree. Iruka saw the branch he was lying on- it was covered with blood. So were his clothes and face- he seemed to be unconscious. Iruka jumped to the tree and kneeled next to him, grabbing Kakashi's wrist and trying to feel his pulse. He saw Kakashi was holding a scroll. Iruka quickly took it and put it in his bag, which he still had on his back, while feeling for the pulse with his other hand.

"He's alive," he muttered under his breath, his voice faint and schocked, while lifting him up carefully (which was a lot harder than he had imagined), and gently holding him. He didn't want to see Kakashi this way, though he couldn't keep his eyes away from the Jounin's closed eye and the wound quite close to it. Iruka felt his heart pounding in his throat- over the last couple of days he had been starting to like the Jounin. Sure, he had his annoying moments, but nobody is perfect (_and Kakashi sure as hell wasn't_, Iruka thought) "Do you happen to know if Kakashi has any pursuers?" The Chuunin asked the little dog, who was watching him while he prepared himself for the trip home. Chuunaru shook his head.

"No, right after he summoned me, he passed out so I immediately went to the village to warn the Hokage. He hasn't said anything to me." Iruka nodded.

"Alright, I think I can manage it from here, or would you like to stay?" Chuunaru shook his head and giving him a "I'll Let You Handle It From Here"-look, before disappearing with a small 'poof', leaving Iruka and Kakashi alone. Kakashi moaned slightly, giving Iruka some hope that he was regaining bits of his strength. He didn't waste anymore time and started running, jumping and using any other possible way of getting to the village faster.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Five minutes later  
_

When Iruka entered the hospital- out of breath, sweaty and covered in Kakashi's blood - nearby doctors and nurses pulled Kakashi off of him as quickly as they could. _Tsunade-sama must have warned them, _Iruka thought. They took Kakashi into a room, leaving Iruka standing alone near the entrance of the hospital. He didn't really know what to do, so he decided he should wait. After a while, a nurse came out of the room where they had taken Kakashi. She started examining him, looking if he had been hurt too. He mostly felt tired though. "Is this yours or is it Hatake-san's blood?" She asked him, pointing to his vest which was covered in blood.

"Hatake-san's," Iruka replied, still a bit out of breath from running. He couldn't even remember the last time he had to run so fast, though his speed hadn't failed him. He always was very fast, which came in handy today. After that, the nurse asked some questions about how he found him, if he had said anything, and a lot of other things Iruka thought were pointless (though as polite as he was, he did reply them). "Will he be alright?" Iruka asked her, sounding more worried than he had planned. The nurse nodded reassuring.

"Yes, as far as the doctors can see and by what you're telling me, he only had lost a lot of blood, but we can fix that with a transfusion, which the doctors are doing right now. He probably hadn't survived if you hadn't been so fast." Iruka sighed relieved. Good, he was going to be alright. "If you want to visit him, drop by tomorrow afternoon, he'll be awake then." Iruka nodded again, giving a quick "thank you" to the nurse before quickly looking at the room where they had taken Kakashi and walking out of the hospital.

He never really did like hospitals.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

His head hurt. No, it was pounding. His head hurt and was pounding. For a moment, he didn't want to think of anything, because it hurt a lot, but after one minute he started to think about what had happened before he had passed out. He was on a mission- he remembered this because he could see Iruka flashing through his head, handing him a mission scroll- he needed to steal a secret scroll. Still with his eyes closed, Kakashi tried to recall what happened after he left the village. He remembered guards- a lot of them - he remembered an alarm went off - a very loud alarm-, he remembered shinobi chasing after him - a lot of them - and he remembered getting hit. He remembered fighting them and winning and he also remembered that he was hurt- very badly. After that, he couldn't really recall anything else (though he was still trying).

Slowly he opened his eye, trying to get used to the light that was coming from a nearby window. He knew he was lying in a bed (since he didn't feel any rocks or sticks underneath him- nor did he had an aching back from sleeping on a branch of a tree for the whole night, which had happened to him very often), and could now see that he was actually in the hospital. He then remembered summoning Chuunaru in the forest, but then it all went black.

"Ah, Kakashi-san," he heard a voice coming from the door. He slightly turned his head, feeling a little woozy, and saw Tsunade standing in the doorway, smiling at him. "Finally decided to wake up, eh?" Kakashi sighed and turned his head again. The Godaime walked to his bed and grabbed a chair so she could sit down. "So, how are you feeling?"

"You really wanna know?" He cracked.

"No, actually, I was just being polite. I know you're going to be fine, though you probably feel bad now,-" Kakashi snorted at this and had the slight tendency to say "duh". "- You want me to fill you in on what happened after you passed out? Not that it really matters, though, but I'm sure you'd like to know who rescued you." She grinned at him. He nodded, while raising his eyebrow in curiosity. "Well, after your nin dog arrived here, I sent Iruka-sensei to get you. He was really quick in bringing you back to the village- I don't think anyone would've been faster or even as fast as he was," Tsunade looked thoughtfully. "Thanks to him, you're still alive! I'd thank him if I were you." She gave him a smile. "Well, I'll let you rest up a bit. Remember though, you'll have to stay here for observation for a couple of days! So you stay in bed and don't come out of it until the doctors say you can."

"What about my mission?" Kakashi asked, his voice soft and weak.

"Don't worry about that, I made sure someone would watch over Iruka until you're strong enough then," she walked out of the doorway, muttering something Kakashi could barely hear. It sounded awfully close to: "Let's just hope Iruka can hold on until that time…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_That same time, only somewhere else_

"My esteemed and equal rival lying in the hospital! And after a B-mission as well! Why, if this is the Copy Ninja I know, I wonder why I am still calling him my equal. Of course, I have never been wounded that badly after a mission like that - well, maybe when I was a Chuunin, but that's not the point-, I think I should challenge him now, now that he is weak, and finally become the most fearsome shinobi of the village. Of course, that would not be very honourable… No, I couldn't do that. I tried attacking him in his sleep once and he actually defeated me then, so I don't thi-"

"Gai?"

"-nk he would fall for that. Maybe if I-"

"GAI!"

"Hm? Yes?" He seemed to have finally shut up, after Iruka yelled his name loudly.

"Why are you following me?" Iruka asked him. Gai was nice, but him and Iruka never actually talked to each other, only at the mission's office. And even then Iruka only asked how training was going- that was really it- but now Gai had knocked on his door at 7 a.m. saying he went out for jogging and asking him if he would like to join the Jounin. He had grabbed Iruka by the wrist and dragged him along, before Iruka could even answer, and while he was still rubbing his eyes (it was, after all, his day off and he liked staying in bed). It was only until Iruka grabbed the doorway and holding it tightly, forcing Gai to look back, that the man would start listening, since Iruka only had his boxers on- something Gai hadn't even noticed. Iruka, blushing heavily, started muttering about putting a pants and a shirt on first.

After the very, very, very long run (Iruka thought they must've ran 500 times around the village before Gai finally stopped in front of the village gates), Iruka thought he could finally get rid of Gai (who didn't seem tired at all). Unfortunately for him, Gai took him out for breakfast. Then, when Iruka wanted to go get a shower, Gai actually had the nerve of asking him if he could come with him to keep him company. That really did it for Iruka- he wanted to be mad. Oh, he wanted it so badly- but when he felt his temper rise, and when he felt his blood started to boil… he really couldn't think of anything. I mean, what would you do if somebody asked you a question like that (when you hardly even know him!)? So, Iruka sighed and gave up. Of course, he didn't take a shower that morning… However, he kept wondering about one thing.

_Had all the Jounin gone mad?_

"Eh?" Gai asked him- he didn't really know what to answer.

"Why are you following me?" He asked again, voice sounding very stern- it was a bit like the voice he used whenever a student of his had done something, but didn't want to admit it. Similar to this situation, and since Gai was kind of like a little kid, Iruka thought it was best to use that voice. Gai looked like he was thinking very hard about it (which was a very funny sight).

"I don't think it's that important!" He replied cheerfully, grabbing Iruka by the arm and walking a bit faster. "What is important, is that we go and see Kakashi-san right now!"


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Another update! (you: -shockhorror-) a bit sooner than expected, yes... but I love writing this fic! **

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Thanks for all the wonderful reviews everyone! **

** Oro-sama: You wan't your sex-scene? Then you have to wait a while, lol.. I can't just let Iruka jump on top of Kakashi.. well, I could, but that would take all the fun out of writing XDD  
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Anonymous: Tsunade chose Gai, could you think of anyone more perfect than him? XD I don't really need any help, lol.. I got time, got inspiration, so everything is good! Thanks anyway!**

**Enjoy! I adore Kakashi in this one.. though I am beginning to think I make him a lot more cuter than he actually is xD **

**Chapter 5**

_Not too long after we left off… _

Kakashi was lying in bed, wondering when the hell he could get out of the hospital. He never liked hospitals that much- he preferred to recover in his own apartment, his own bed and his own food (hospital food tasted as if it had been lying on the table for a week). But the doctor had said he was in no condition of taking care of himself, since he was still too weak to do anything. So he had to stay there, waiting until he finally had enough strength ( though he did feel much better than when he woke up) to take care of his own again.

All he was allowed to do, was sit in his bed, sleep and eat, they hadn't even given him one of his books (which he hadn't brought with him on the mission, so they were still lying in his apartment)! With enough time on his hands, he started to think about things. And when he thought about things, he thought about what Tsunade-sama had said. _Iruka had saved him._ It wasn't that big a deal of course- Kakashi knew this. Tsunade had simply ordered the Chuunin to save him, it wasn't as if Iruka went looking for him on his own- heck, he had probably been mad at him for not filling out a report!

Then why did he keep thinking about it?

Sure, Iruka was boring, had a temper and was a freak when it came to following the rules, but Kakashi still had grown a bit fond of the teacher- even though they were completely the opposite of each other. Iruka enjoyed spending time outside, Kakashi enjoyed reading about people doing- well, anyway, he liked it that they weren't the same. And even though they were completely different people, they always had something to discuss or to talk about. He kept hoping that Iruka would come and visit him in the hospital.

_Don't be ridiculous, he's probably not even thinking about you, _shot through his head. He winced at this thought- he had asked Iruka for lunch first. He went to the lake where the teacher had been with his students- Iruka didn't need his company, Iruka didn't want his company. He probably didn't even like him. _"He was very fast in getting you, I don't think anyone would've been faster," _Tsunade had said, which brought him to another thought, something that had been said to him when he had just passed his Jounin exam._"You don't just fight for yourself, Kakashi, you don't get strength from fighting for yourself. You become strong when you find something worth fighting for, when you find someone you want to protect with all your heart- only then will you become truly strong," _the Third had said to him. Maybe Iruka had been so fast because of that? Because he wanted to save him too, and not just because it was his mission?

Kakashi shrugged and tried to shake the thoughts of the Chuunin out of his head. It was his mission to look after him and he couldn't get involved anymore. Yes, he just had to think of something else- maybe think of his training, or how he could get his hands on the new Icha Icha novel, which had just been released. As long as he didn't have to think about Iruka, then it would be alright.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Iruka stood in the doorway to his room. Oh crap. He slowly sat up straight in his bed- it hurt a lot when he moved too quickly, because of the big cuts in his back, shoulders and arms. Besides that, he still had a tremendous headache, but he figured as long as people would talk to him quietly, it didn't really bother him.

"MY RIVAL!" Gai bellowed, pushing Iruka inside the room. Kakashi rolled his eyes (_Why me?_) at the over- excited Jounin, who came in wanting to give him a pat on the back. But, luckily for Kakashi, a nurse grabbed Gai by his vest to stop him ("Thank God for nurses," Kakashi had muttered).

"Only one visitor at a time!" She snapped, dragging him out of the room. Iruka looked at them, while Gai was still yelling "I must challenge him! Let me go!", and sighed, turning towards Kakashi.

"Sorry 'bout that," Iruka said, settling himself next to the Jounin's bed. Kakashi, who was half-glad Iruka came to visit him, but half-disappointed since he didn't want to get any closer to the Chuunin, chuckled as Gai was still struggling with nine nurses and two doctors, trying to get into the room. "He's been acting weird all morning, well, not that he ever did act normal." Iruka grinned slightly, trying to not look at the stitches Kakashi had on him. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Headache, can't walk, can't do anything, pain in my back and I don't have my books," he sighed. He looked a bit depressed.

"Guess you're not the type to stay the whole day in bed then, huh?" Iruka asked, giving him a polite smile. Kakashi nodded. "So, what happened out there? I don't fully understand- it was supposed to be an easy mission for you. The average time it would take was twelve hours and since you are a Jounin, you should've been able to do it in six hours with ease."

"I know," Kakashi mumbled. "I guess the mission was underrated- if a Chuunin had done it, he most certainly would have died. Miscalculating the difficulty of a mission doesn't happen often, but they do happen. It was partly my fault too- I figured it was too easy so I didn't really concentrate enough on the mission," he smiled, his eye crinkling. "I should've known better, but I guess my arrogance got the better of me yesterday." Iruka nodded.

"Well, that's understandable," he replied, looking at the Jounin. "I have one more question for you though," Kakashi turned his head slightly, searching for Iruka's eyes now. He didn't like the tone in his voice. "Why is it that ever since you're in the hospital, Gai has been following me? Is there something going on?" He looked at the Jounin, who had now turned his head and was looking at the wall, apparently seeing something very interesting there. Eventually, after an inner battle with himself whether or not he should tell the Chuunin the truth, he spoke.

"No, not that I know of," he said. Iruka felt hurt.

"I'm not stupid," he said softly, looking away.

"I never said you-"

"Then why are you telling me this crap?" Iruka said- his voice was louder now. "I'm not stupid, don't assume I don't know what's going on- I thought it was suspicious the moment _you _started following me! It was because of the attack in the forest, right?" Kakashi didn't answer. "Who does she think she is? She thinks I'm weak, doesn't she? Just because I'm a Chuunin, it doesn't mean that I'm not capable of protecting me and my class!" The Jounin shook his head, he didn't think that- he honestly didn't. "Don't bullshit me," Iruka hissed, getting himself worked up. So this was what the Hokage meant when she assigned him the mission- he really would be mad. Kakashi really hated himself- if only he had spoken the truth, perhaps Iruka wouldn't be so mad. "You think I'm weak too, right? Well, I fought them off perfectly without your help! I don't need your help, or Gai's, just stay the hell away from me, got it?" That was it for Iruka- he opened the window of the room and jumped out of it, leaving the silver-haired man, together with his guilt. But _why?_ Why did he feel guilty? It wasn't as if he had volunteered to keep an eye out for him- it had been the Godaime's order.

"Gai?" Kakashi called out, to see if he was still there. He had to warn him about Iruka- he didn't know what he was going to do know. For all he knew, he was going to the forest or somewhere else it wasn't safe. He didn't hear any response. "Gai?" Kakashi yelled again- crap, Gai couldn't have gone away. What the hell had Tsunade been drinking when she assigned _him _the mission anyway? After a couple of seconds, a nurse came in.

"Is there a problem, Hatake-sama?" She asked politely.

"Yes, where is Maito Gai? You know, the loud guy with the fuzzy eyebrows and weird haircut," Kakashi quickly said. The nurse thought about the description he had given her for a moment, before chuckling. The Jounin raised an eyebrow, looking at her curiously.

"I think I know who you mean," she said, giggling. "He was fighting so hard to get here, we had to give him an injection, so he'd calm down. He'll be out for another three hours or so. Was that all?" Kakashi gave her a nod and a thank you, before sending her away. Crap. Crap, crap, _crap._ What was he going to do now?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Somewhere else, same time_

He kept running. He didn't know where he was running to, but he had to run- he had to run off his frustration. Damn that man. He felt hurt and betrayed and didn't know what else to do besides getting as far away from his as possible. And yet he felt as if he was doing the wrong thing. Maybe he had overreacted, Kakashi hadn't really deserved the things he had said to him. But Iruka just got so mad- people thought he was weak. He couldn't take it.

_"You'll never become a Genin, you'll always be a loser," one of his classmates said, putting on his new hitai-ate. _

_"No, I won't! You just wait and see, I'll graduate next year and I'll kick your butt!" He yelled back, making a fist. The boy just laughed at him, together with all the others of his former class. Everybody had graduated, except for him. _

_"You're weak," the boy replied, showing off the headband. "You can't do anything." _

Iruka felt his eyes burn. He was weak, a loser. Everybody thought that. The Hokage, Gai, Kakashi. Iruka smiled bitterly at the thought of Kakashi. He had actually started to consider the Jounin as a friend, even though they had absolutely nothing in common and Kakashi could be annoying sometimes. But he realised he wasn't his friend- the only reason he had asked him for lunch was on the Hokage's orders. Iruka halted, when he saw the lake in front of him. He sat down on the grass, breathing heavily and leaning against one of the surrounding trees. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down. He had a temper- he acknowledged that - but he had learned how to control it. A bit. He just had to relax for a while, keep his mind off other things and perhaps take a nap and let the anger wash away. Usually, this worked for him, but now he couldn't keep his mind clear and the only thing he saw was the masked face of Kakashi.

"Slacking off, _sensei?_" Iruka quickly opened his eyes, staring directly into the face of one of the missing nin that had attacked him and his class before. Two others appeared on his side, smirking. "We came for a little revenge- since you are all alone now. You really should keep an eye out for followers you know." Iruka gritted his teeth- this wasn't looking good. If he even moved his hand towards his shurikenholster, they would most definitely kill him before he could even grab one. Damn, they had him cornered. "You guys wanna play with him for a little bit, before we actually kill him? God knows you need the training." The one speaking was obviously the leader of them- a rather small man, in black clothes with black hair and brown eyes. Iruka noticed several scars were on his very young and pale face. If he hadn't been trapped like this, he could have probably taken them all on. However, he couldn't be irrational now, so he had to carefully think things through. They could kill him easily here, with no witnesses and no one to stop them- things seemed rather hopeless for the young teacher. _Guess I am weak after all,_ Iruka thought, feeling as if he had just fallen into a pool of cold water. The two other men shook their heads, looking at the man with a thirst for blood in their eyes. They were certainly enjoying this. "No? You guys don't want to play? Fine, I'll kill him right now," the leader continued, grinning at him. He took a kunai.

"What the-" was all that he could say, before a shuriken sliced his throat, making a huge gap. He fell to the floor, holding his hands against the wound, but it was no use- the bleeding wouldn't stop. Iruka, obviously surprised by this though he didn't waste any time, jumped up and grabbed two kunais to finish off the other two who had been looking at their boss in surprise. The fight was

over after that.

"Iruka-sensei," Iruka looked to his right, to the Jounin who was know on his knees, panting. He winced at the sight of Kakashi, feeling guilt washing over him. He had come all this way to save him. "Are you alright?" Iruka looked at him for a moment, not knowing what to say, but then smiled at him. He walked towards Kakashi and put his arm around the weakened man, helping hem stand up.

"I am, but I don't think you're in a condition to ask something like that to me. You should be worried about yourself," he replied. "Let's go back to the hospital." Kakashi nodded, before passing out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_A few hours later_

"Gai, really, it wasn't your fault," he said, patting the Jounin on his back. They were back in the hospital, and Kakashi was back in the operating room and he had been there for over three hours now. The doctor had said he used too much chakra to get to the lake and since he was already in a weakened state they couldn't say if he would make it or not, there was about a 40 percent chance that he would make it.

Iruka hadn't had any time to feel guilty or sad or anxious or even angry, since he was far too busy with consoling Gai, who was convinced it was his fault the Jounin was dying (though it wasn't even sure if he was dying, but as we all know Gai is a bit… over-dramatic). "I let you out of my sight and noble Kakashi risked his life for his mission!" The Jounin whimpered. Iruka felt something boil again. _Risked his life for his mission._

"Iruka-san?" A nurse walked up to them. They immediately stood up, anxious about the result. She smiled at them. "I have good news, Kakashi-sama will be alright, though he does have to stay here for about a week for observation. He is awake now and has requested to see you, Iruka-san." Iruka nodded. He had never felt more relieved in his life. Gai quickly grabbed the Chuunin protectively before he could walk to the room they where Kakashi was, apparently not wanting to let him out of his sight again.

"Gai," Iruka said. "It really is alright, I won't run away again. Just let me go and talk to him, okay?" He said reassuringly, as if talking to a 4-year old when he had just woken up from a bad dream. Gai nodded and let go, allowing Iruka to go inside Kakashi's room.

"Yo," Kakashi said weakly, slowly turning his head towards the door when he heard the brown-haired man coming in. Iruka nodded- he didn't really know where to start. He wanted to apologise for being such an ass and he wanted to thank him for saving his life and he also wanted to ask him why the _hell _he went after him. "You caused me some serious trouble, you know," Kakashi continued, smiling weakly. "I'm sorry, Iruka. I never thought of you as weak, but-"

"Stop," the Chuunin said. "It's me who should apologise, I shouldn't have been so mad at you- you were only doing what the Hokage told you to do. I understand," he swallowed. He understood, but he didn't like it. Kakashi eyed him. "Why didn't you warn someone that I had gone away? Why did you come after me? You should've sent someone else!" Iruka said, temper rising again. He wasn't angry now- he was concerned about him. The idiot should have just stayed in bed.

"Because," Kakashi said, giving him a weak smile again, his eye crinkling slightly. "I don't like abandoning my friends."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews everyone!**

**Anonymous: It didn't sound insulting, lol. But yah, the answer is no xD … No offence though o.o and thanks for the offer. **

**Ori-sama: …Gai developing a crush for Iruka? O.o… no way! He's meant to be with Lee! -grins- **

**Enjoy the 6th chapter!**

**Chapter 6**

_A week later_

"You've healed well, Kakashi-san," the Hokage said from behind her desk. Kakashi nodded, jumping from the window sill he had been sitting on.

"You summoned me, Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi merely said. He was in a bad mood- a very bad mood. For the past week he had been waking up from nightmares, sweating and panting heavily. It was because of that damn Iruka.

After the Jounin had been operated for the second time, Iruka had visited him daily until yesterday when he could finally leave the hospital. About two days after the battle with the last remaining missing nin, Kakashi had been starting to have nightmares about Iruka. He got killed in every single one of them, and in every single one of them Kakashi could not do anything. It was so frustrating, he didn't want to feel this way anymore.

The man really did seem to have a certain effect on Kakashi. The only time when he had such nightmares, were right after his father, the Fourth and Obito had died. He had them for about one year, and then they gradually would stop. This was different though- Iruka wasn't dead and he was a teacher so he didn't do a lot of missions that would get him killed. So why did he have these dreams? Kakashi even was afraid of going to sleep again, so he stayed up most of the night, reading his books or jogging through the forest.

So, due to a lack of sleep and because he simply hated the Hokage for giving him this mission, he was in a bad mood. "Yes, I'd like it if you would give me your report about the Iruka-mission," she said, putting some papers in a drawer, before looking at him. "I heard the remaining missing nin were all killed last week?" Kakashi nodded.

"Yes, Iruka and I killed them when we were in the forest," he replied.

"And what were you doing in the forest, Hatake?" She asked, looking very stern.

"Gai wasn't able to look after Iruka, so I felt like I had to do it, since it was my mission." She closed her eyes for a second, thinking things through. "My mission is over now, I hope?"

"Yes, it is," she said, opening them again. Kakashi nodded and was about to jump out of the window again. "But," he stopped, one foot already on the window sill. "I'd like it if you stayed in Konoha for a while. You are not allowed to do any missions, perhaps a D-rank mission once in a while, but you are to stay here for the time being." Kakashi was about to protest to this- what the hell did that woman drink? "It's because you are still weak from the battle-" she explained to him, after catching his very angry look. "- so I want you to stay in the village for a month, maybe even more, and relax. Things are going slow anyway at the moment, so I think it is in order to give you a little time to heal completely. You are dismissed." Kakashi bowed very stiffly, angry at her. He didn't want to relax- it was really the opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to get out of the village. He wanted to stay away from Iruka.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

Someone knocked on his door, but he didn't feel like opening. After a hard day teaching those brats (they had actually thrown water balloons at him- of course they got detention for that), he deserved some peace and quiet. So he decided not to answer the knock on his door. After a minute or so, Iruka figured the person had left. Good. He could just grab some junkfood and read a book, or something else that would relax him. Eating junkfood alone would be better.

"Yo," Iruka jumped up from his couch, startled, only to find Kakashi standing in front of the window with his hands in his pocket.

"You didn't open the door," he pointed out. Iruka simply rolled his eyes.

"I had a long day, so I didn't really feel like company," he explained, walking to the kitchen. "And _how _did you open my window? I'm pretty sure I locked it." Kakashi grinned.

"Your window is easy to open, I did it before when you didn't answer the door yesterday. I took some of your ice cream from the fridge, hope you don't mind." So _that's _what happened to his ice cream. He had been fairly sure he hadn't eaten it himself and he knew he had bought the ice cream, so it was a mystery where it had gone. Iruka would definitely get him back for stealing his ice cream. Nobody steals ice cream from Iruka, even Naruto knew that. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something," he continued, not noticing Iruka's flaming eyes ( I would go mad too, if it had been my ice cream). "I don't think we should hang out anymore." It sounded very casual when it came from his mouth- as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Iruka frowned at the Jounin, who settled himself on the couch.

"And why do you think that?" Iruka asked, sitting down in the chair opposite to the couch. He certainly thought it was very weird of him to say that. "I thought you said we were friends? Does this mean the mission is over or something?" Kakashi sighed.

"Yes and no- the mission is over, but I suppose it's not the reason why I tell you this," he replied. Iruka was still frowning.

"Well, what is the reason then?"

"I… well, it's more or less… I… I don't know how to explain," he muttered eventually. Iruka still frowned, eyeing the Jounin. "I guess it's because it's a lot easier for me to not have any close friends and since you have started to become my friend… I mean, a lot of them have died in the past and I don't really want to go through that again, so it's easier for the both of us," he said, looking very pleased with himself that he could express it with words.

He wasn't looking forward to not having Iruka's company of course, but he did like his sleep- and he didn't want to think about the Chuunin that often anymore. It had started to look like his whole life was about Iruka: he thought about Iruka when he was training, sleeping, eating and showering (not any naughty thoughts though!) and he asked about Iruka when he saw Genma or Asuma (and, as you could have guessed, their suspicion of Kakashi's crush grew even bigger). Besides, he didn't want to get hurt. He didn't want to have someone that would die or perhaps abandon him like his father had done. Hell no. He was better off on his own.

"Well, that's stupid," Iruka said, eyes closed. He was scratching his scar thoughtfully at what the Jounin had said. "I mean, do you think that I don't know how it feels to lose somebody? It hurts like hell, but you can't shut yourself out just because of that, you have to try again and simply hope for the best." The silver-haired man thought about it: he didn't know what to do. It was true what Iruka had said, but he didn't want to get hurt, and then again he did wanted to be friends with Iruka- heck, he probably wanted more than.

_Wait,_ he thought, _I want more than that? _As he looked into Iruka's eyes, he thought about this some more. He liked Iruka, but did he like him that much? Kakashi had never actually had a girlfriend and he really did prefer men, though he had never actually felt anything towards the men in the village. He found them attractive, but nothing more- he had never had the I-Want-To-Be-With-You-Forever-Because-I'm-Madly-In-Love-With-You- feeling, though he was pretty sure he had that feeling now with Iruka. He couldn't stay away from the man.

_But does Iruka like men?_

He kind of thought Iruka did like them, just by the way he acted, so maybe he did like them? But even if he did, Iruka wouldn't be attracted to _him._ How could he be? He had never seen him without his mask, he had a scar on his left eye and he looked like an old man with that silver hair of his. Besides that, he was sure his personality wouldn't attract him either.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything?" Iruka asked, ripping Kakashi out of his train of thoughts. Kakashi looked at him again.

"I'm sorry Iruka, I don't think we should see each other again," he stood up, taking his eyes off the Chuunin, who looked rather hurt by this, and jumped out of the open window and landed on his feet. He couldn't continue seeing Iruka- his feelings would only get deeper and deeper until he would drown in them. And he wouldn't let that happen.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Not long after that_

Iruka looked at the open window, while sitting on a chair. What the hell was wrong with that man? They were getting along fine- actually, they had been getting along better than he had expected when Kakashi first asked him out for lunch. And now Kakashi seemed to ruin it- or perhaps he really had been saying they were friends just for the mission's sake?

"Iruka-san!" Someone came through the window again. For a moment, Iruka's heart started to beat faster, as he was thinking Kakashi had come back to say that they should get some ramen- but it was Asuma. At first sight it looked as if the Jounin had something urgent to say, but when Iruka looked closer, he noticed he was laughing and grinning. "Come quickly, Kakashi-san's apartment! It's-it's-" he laughed again. Iruka frowned- would the man just hurry up and tell him what was going on? "- its burned to the ground!"

"_What?" _Iruka didn't seem to think it was that funny. Not at all, actually (though it did seem an appropriate punishment for his actions, an inner- Iruka thought). The Jounin couldn't stop laughing, and Iruka thought it was getting pretty annoying.

"Yeah," he said between laughs. "You- you should come- you should come and see it!" He was still laughing, and grabbed Iruka's arm and jumped out of the window, taking Iruka with him. Iruka wanted to see this too- not that he thought it was funny, but he just wanted to… gloat. A little.

When they arrived at Kakashi's apartment, half the village already stood around the apartment. Some were helping with moving some junk out of the way and even the Hokage had come to take a look. Asuma and Iruka pushed themselves through the crowd so they could stand in front to see the people who lived there. Kakashi was there, of course, and four other people were standing in front of the complete mess that was once their home, looking accusingly at Kakashi, who looked horrified. Asuma chuckled.

"You see, it was actually Kakashi's fault," he said, grinning. "He was cooking and then he had gone out of the house, forgetting he left the stove on, so it caught flames. By the time anyone noticed there was a fire, it was already too late!" He laughed again. "Not only that- do you see the look on his face?" Iruka quickly glanced at the Jounin, who was staring at the pile and nodded- he looked like he was going to be sick. "His precious Icha Icha novels were in the apartment and got burned along with it!" Iruka couldn't fight back a chuckle this time- he always knew Kakashi would somehow get punished for reading those filthy porn novels. Though one look at the face of Kakashi, made him regret the fact he laughed at this- he really did look quite depressed about it. Maybe he could buy him another book?

Iruka walked up to him, really not knowing what he would say when he got there- he was mad at him, but he doubted Kakashi would get happier if Iruka started a fight with him right now. "Kakashi?" he asked him. Kakashi merely looked at him. "I, eh… heard what happened to your books," he turned a bit red now- even the thought of those books made him blush. _Damn, he's cute when he blushes like that. _Ok, so Kakashi wasn't that shaken up over his books- in fact, with Iruka standing in front of him, he could hardly even think about that. He felt regret for saying the things he said to him, but was still scared. And even though he had acted like a jerk in the man's house, the Chuunin had still come and watch him, looking sincerely concerned about him. He didn't know what to do.

"Everybody who lived in this building, will you please come here for a moment?" Tsunade said loud enough, so everyone could hear it. Kakashi quickly nodded to Iruka, before turning away from him. Iruka went back to Asuma, who had gone back to laughing again. "Alright," she said, looking at the five people who had gathered around her. "Let me first say how deeply sorry I am for this," she looked angrily at Kakashi, who blushed slightly behind his mask. "Of course, I've already arranged for temporary apartments, that the village will pay for, though there is a slight problem. We only have enough for four people, so one of you will have to stay with someone." Several people mumbled something. "Kakashi? How about you?"

"What? Why _me?" _He replied- he didn't even know who to stay with, so how could he?

"Because you're the one who caused this mess and I don't want other people to pay even more because of your stupidity!" She barked, her temper rising a bit.

"But I don't know-" He started, before getting interrupted by her.

"I don't care who it is, but we can't provide any shelter for you. How about Iruka? I'm sure he's willing to share his apartment with you." Iruka? Now there was an interesting thought, maybe he could sleep in Iruka's bed and- No, wait, he couldn't think like that. He couldn't see him anymore, that's what he had said to him.

"I don't think that's-" he started again.

"Iruka!" She interrupted him again. He really hated that. It took Iruka 2 seconds to get to the Hokage (after all, she was really scary when she yelled like that) and looked curiously at Tsunade. "Since Kakashi here was responsible for this mess, I've decided he should stay with you until the apartments get rebuild, which should take about three weeks." Iruka was about to object to this (why did he have to pay for Kakashi's clumsiness as well? It didn't seem fair), but even before he could say anything, the Hokage gave him a foul look which would make anyone cringe. All right, so he wouldn't object. "Good," she turned to the others. "If you would follow Shizune, she will take you all to your new apartments. We'll have this rebuild in no time, there are already a dozen volunteers willing to work on it, so it shouldn't take long." After that, she quickly ran to her office. There were still two-thousand things to do.

Kakashi smiled nervously. "So- eh… I can cook if you want!" Iruka glanced at him, before turning around and passing Asuma, who was still laughing. Kakashi walked after him, hands in his pocket.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! I gotta say, this is the longest fic I have ever made.. I usually give up after chapter 3 or something -cough- Wha, and I do believe this is my longest chapter yet!**

**I hope I'm able to keep them in character, lol.. I always have trouble with that. Anyhoo, new chapter, hope you enjoy… another chapter with Gai in it (yeah, we can't live without him!) **

**Btw, I need some advice: I started on a Gai/Lee fic (currently busy with chapter 1) and I was wondering.. good idea or not? XD Lol, I really adore that couple and there are just… not enough fics about those two o.o.. tell me what you think! XD**

**Further more… this chapter is gonna be -cough- a bit unoriginal.. well.. you'll probably see what I mean with that (hint: the part where Gai comes in xD) and yah.. do they even have Christmas in Konoha? No idea, but… heck, I don't care! Christmas should be everywhere, ne? -laughs- **

**Enjoy and have a very merry Christmas everybody (may you all get loads of presents and Kakashipushies)!**

**Chapter 7 **

_Two weeks after that, around Christmastime _

Ok, so it wasn't that bad, living with Kakashi, though Iruka tried his best to avoid him. He still did not really understand why Kakashi didn't want to see him anymore- so he tried his best not to get in the way, even though the man kept talking to him. Iruka started to feel a bit sorry for him though- Kakashi really tried his best to make it up to him and all the Chuunin did was stare at him, before walking away.

Not that it wasn't his own fault. Oh no, Kakashi knew that damn well. He figured he deserved to be treated like this, so he simply tried again. The best he could get out of Iruka was 'hn', 'yes', 'no' and 'stay out of the bathroom when I'm showering, idiot!' (he really hadn't done that on purpose).

After the fire, Kakashi went to the bookstore to get some new Icha Icha books, as he felt a strange emptiness inside of him. Yes, he had missed his books very much, even though it only had been two hours without them. He wasn't really upset about living with Iruka- well, he was nervous, but that was only because of the things he had said to him. After three days of staying with the man, Kakashi had the nightmares about him again, making him feel…scared. The Chuunin usually came into the room where he was staying, as he normally was screaming in his sleep, but that was about the only interaction the two of them had in that period of time.

Kakashi thought he was a fool, an idiot, a dunce, a- well, you get the idea. How on earth could he possibly not be with this man? Just the little quirks Iruka had, made his insides squirm- actually, they practically had the same effect as Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu. The way he scratches his scar whenever he feels nervous or when he's mad, the unusual position he sleeps in (Kakashi had seen him sleeping once or twice on the couch with a book next to him- it wasn't like he was actually watching him in his sleep. Because he wasn't. Really.) and of course, the way he eats a whole box of ice cream in one day. There were many others and Kakashi really loved all of them- and he could feel the way he was starting to like Iruka more and more and sometimes he really had to hold himself back as he just wanted to grab Iruka and hold him and have hot, passionate- well, I think you get the idea again.

But even after all his efforts, Iruka still wouldn't even talk to him. He needed advice- yes, he desperately needed it. But from who? He really didn't anyone who could help him with this problem. He didn't really have anyone to talk to- actually, he never talked about personal stuff except maybe what he had for dinner. He decided he would go to the most obvious person to ask advice from.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Not too long after that.. _

"My esteemed rival has come to ask me for my advice? Of course I will do my best to assist you! If I can't help you, I will do 500 push-ups on one hand!" Kakashi nodded, wishing he would just be a bit more quiet. They were in the forest, so there wasn't really any chance that they could be heard, but still- he didn't want anyone else to hear. "So, what is it then?"

"Ok, well, you see, eh… I have this friend," Kakashi started to mutter, scratching his head. "And, well, he likes this other person, but this other person doesn't really like him, and that person is actually a bit mad at him, so he has no idea how to fix it and-" Kakashi saw Gai's eyebrow going up. Ok, this wasn't working. "Oh, the hell with it," he said, throwing his hands up. "I like Iruka, but Iruka doesn't want to talk to me, because I said some… things. Could you give me some advice please?" Gai rubbed his chin.

"Well, I don't know Iruka that good, but he can easily forgive someone, so it's very weird he didn't forgive you after you apologised-

" He stopped, looking at Kakashi's expression. "You didn't apologise, did you?" Kakashi started scratching his head again, though in his mind he was slapping himself.

"Well, no, not exactly," he mumbled, Gai's bushy eyebrow going even further up. _This_ was his equal? He started to push Kakashi back to the village. "What the- Hey!"

"You need to apologise to Iruka-sensei and confess your love to him!" The man said cheerfully, giving him a last pat on the back. "So go!" The man simply nodded, before running back to the village, prepared to apologise. But not ready yet for… confessing.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Iruka!" Kakashi yelled through the apartment, catching his breath for a moment. The silver-haired man waited a while before yelling his name again. "Iruka!"

"Yes yes, what is it Kakashi?" He replied, his voice came from his bedroom. Kakashi jumped from the window sill and walked towards the bedroom, knocking on it. His heart started to beat in his throat- would the man forgive him or not? The only thing he wanted to do now was run away. He slapped himself in his mind again. _Idiot_, he thought, _you have beaten thousands of shinobi's and you are afraid of one little Chuunin. Man, you're weak._

"I just wanted talk to you for a bit. Can I come in?" He heard some ruffling coming from the other side of the door, before it opened and Iruka came out. His hair was loose again, hanging barely above his shoulders and Kakashi had to admit- he loved his hair that way.

"What do you want?" He asked stiffly. Kakashi started to scratch his head again, smiling nervously at the Chuunin.

"I just- well, I just wanted to apologise," he muttered, his visible eye was looking at something on the floor, apparently it was very interesting to him. Iruka raised an eyebrow and scratched the thin scar on his nose.

"And?"

"…and I was an ass and I'll never do it again as long as I live?" Iruka chuckled briefly and nodded.

"Well, all right. I have to apologise too, I've been acting very childish these past two weeks. I mean, ignoring you and all that, but I figured that, since you said that we shouldn't be friends anymore-"

"I was wrong about that," Kakashi quickly interrupted. "It was really stupid of me to say that and I think you were right to ignore me," he added softly, as if speaking to himself. Iruka smiled at him and decided he would simply forget all the things that had happened. Truth be told, he had a hard time being angry at Kakashi, even though it seemed so easy, but he kept repeating to himself what Kakashi had done, so that made it a bit more easier to stick with the I-Won't-Talk-To-You-Until-You-Apologised- method. He figured he should change the subject.

"Kurenai is having her annual Christmasparty at her place," he said, scratching his scar. "It's this Friday and I was invited, but maybe you would like to come too? Oh wait, actually, you were invited to," the Chuunin laughed nervously. "But that was when you and I weren't talking and I didn't pass the message through." Kakashi waved his hand briefly, closing his eye.

"Doesn't matter, I get invited every year but I never go," he replied. Iruka raised an eyebrow. "I don't like Christmas very much," Kakashi continued, responding to Iruka's expression. "It's too…cheerful. And useless. Plus, I don't like parties."

"Well, you still owe me something, so this is a perfect way to get even. You're going to that party and you're going to have _fun_." Kakashi chuckled.

"What could possibly be _fun_ on a party with a bunch of Jounins and Chuunins getting drunk?" He inquired, of course, not really interested in the answer. While he was saying it, he was thinking of a way to get out of this. He knew the Chuunin wouldn't accept 'no' for an answer, so Kakashi started to count the pros and the cons. One of the pros was that he was going with Iruka and he would spend the evening with him, the con was that, knowing Kurenai, the rest of the village would be with Iruka and him too. Another pro was that he could get drunk, so the evening wouldn't be a total loss. Plus, it was only one evening- it couldn't really kill him if he were to go. Iruka was thinking about the question.

"Well, it's a lot of fun seeing Genma drunk you know-" he started "- last time, we actually convinced him that his clothes were possessed with an evil spirit, so he threw them off except for his underwear and then we said he should stand outside and whistle, so that the evil spirit would never come back again. He did that, and then we shut him out," Iruka chuckled. "He was lying in the bushes the next day and was forced to walk through the village in his underwear as he had thrown his clothes in Kurenai's fireplace." Kakashi smiled underneath his masked- that actually did sound like fun. A bit. "Well, anyway," he continued. "Just give it a try, if you don't like it, we can go away. Okay?" Kakashi thought about it, before answering.

"Sure."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_That Friday_

Kakashi hadn't exactly been looking forward to the party, actually, the only reason he was still going (the Genma-story didn't work anymore, he honestly didn't want to go after Iruka told him Genma could also get quite horny when he's drunk) was because he would have some fun with Iruka. Well, if Iruka would actually stay with him- the party would get a lot of others so it was unlikely they would spend the evening together there.

The only comfort Kakashi had right now, was that Gai hadn't told anyone about his 'crush'.

"Come _on_, Kakashi," Iruka whined. "I don't _want _to be late." Kakashi thought the sound of his voice was looking a lot like Naruto's- unfortunately for him. "Damn Kakashi, let's go already!" He started tugging Kakakshi's sleeve and tried to drag him towards the door, though he was no match for the Jounin, who didn't move. He shrugged.

"All right, fine. I wasn't planning on breaking my reputation," he mumbled, actually enjoying Iruka's hand on his arm. He quickly took his eyes off it though- he felt it was getting harder to restrain himself from doing anything. Especially as Iruka was dressed rather nicely for the party. It made the Jounin cringe inside- he felt like he was going to explode soon. The Chuunin raised his eyebrow.

"What reputation?" He inquired, as they walked out of the apartment (yes, Kakashi took the door again!), locking the door. Kakashi smiled.

"Of always being late, of course," he replied. Iruka chuckled, before the silence fell and they were walking to Kurenai's house quietly, enjoying the peace. It was a cold evening and Iruka wondered whether it was going to snow or now- he kind of hoped it would as he very much enjoyed the cold snow.

After a ten minute walk, they arrived at the house, where music was playing loudly. There were a couple of people standing outside, a bottle of sake standing on a small, wooden table. They all greeted each other, before they walked inside, feeling the warmth of the house.

They could see several familiar Jounins and Chuunins standing in different groups across the small house, enjoying the music and liquor and of course each others company. Kurenai was standing in the middle of the room, together with Asuma and Genma. Kakashi noticed Asuma whispering something in her ear, which made her giggle- a noise Kakashi had never heard her make. She must have been really drunk.

"Let's go to them," Iruka said, nodding towards Kurenai's group. "Good evening," he said to them, raising a hand (Kakashi raised two fingers with a small 'yo', as usual). They all looked rather stunned when they saw the silver-haired Jounin. "Thank you for inviting us, Kurenai-chan," Iruka continued politely and gave a slight bow. Kurenai, on the other hand, seemed to be drunk and had already gone back to her giggling fit when Asuma placed his hand on her…back. Yeah, we'll stay with that.

"My rival!" A familiar voice bellowed, startling Iruka. Kakashi simply rolled his eyes when he saw who else was invited to the party. Iruka chuckled when Gai gave the other Jounin a rather hard pat on the back (while holding his other hand behind his back, which looked rather suspicious to Kakashi, but he decided to let it go ), that would have probably sent him flying through the wall. "And Iruka-sensei!" he continued, noticing the Chuunin, slightly grinning at Kakashi, who started to blush heavily behind his mask. "Well well, how have you been? Is Kakashi behaving himself?" He winked at the Jounin, who looked like he wanted to just crawl under a rock and die. Then he noticed Gai's right hand hanging above himself and Iruka. After he saw that, he just wanted to die on the spot. Iruka, who hadn't noticed the arm hovering above him and Kakashi, started to chat with Gai about his students and how he was so busy with grading papers and filing reports, before Gai gave a small cough and pointed upwards. Iruka looked up and so did Kurenai, Asuma and Genma. Iruka then turned red, Kurenai started to giggle again, Asuma started to laugh and Genma dropped his senbon. The Chuunin tried to walk away from the group while mumbling something about a colleague of him standing outside, but was pulled back by Gai. "Oh no, Iruka, you know the tradition! When two honourable people are standing underneath mistletoe, they should kiss each other passionately!" Iruka was starting to resemble a tomato.

"He's right y'know," Asuma said, clearly drunk. "Kiss!"

"Surely it doesn't count for two _men?"_ Iruka pleaded. Besides that, even if he _would _kiss him, how in heavens name would he do that? The man would never take off his mask! And Iruka simply would refuse kissing someone wearing cloth in front of his mouth. No way would he do that. Gai grinned.

"Iruka-sensei, you are in the springtime of your youth, live a little! Besides, they are the _rules, _and you wouldn't want to break them, now would you?" Iruka scowled, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get out of this situation. The others looked at him expectantly- though Kakashi was rather interested in the lovely Christmas tree that was standing in the room. _Why did he have to tell Gai? Why why why why why why why? _This wasn't fair- not only to him, but to Iruka as well. Clearly he didn't want to kiss the man, Kakashi noticed this from the way he said 'surely it doesn't count for two men'- Kakashi felt rather hurt about it. Of course, there had never been the certainty that Iruka was gay, but still it was rather painful to hear.

"But he has his mask on," Iruka continued to whine. Asuma laughed again.

"What, you were planning to stick your tongue in his throat? What does it matter, kiss the guy already! It's not like you have to kiss each other senseless, just a simple kiss," he grinned, but stopped with that when he saw the scary face Iruka made. Yeah, the Chuunin could be rather scary. After a couple of seconds thinking (and scratching his scar nervously), Iruka muttered something that sounded like 'fine, you damn Jounins are all mad' and walked to Kakashi, who thanked God that he had been wearing a mask ever since he was eight as he was blushing heavily.

"Iruka," he muttered. "I can just beat the crap out of Gai," Iruka chuckled slightly before putting his hands on the Jounin's shoulders and pressing his lips on the mask. After a couple of seconds, he withdrew, though Iruka had to admit he was rather disappointed a lot of others were standing around them. He might have kissed him longer. After a couple of seconds, Kakashi was able to find his voice again."That was my chin," Kakashi merely pointed out, though he was trying heavily not to collapse at that moment.

He would have to thank Gai later.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! You make me wanna continue writing this fic -grins- **

**Chibi Tuski Hikari: I shall do that btw! I didn't want to do it yet in chapter 7… but I think now would be a good time yah, I hope you're happy with that -laughs- though it is kind of mean to Iruka-chan… but njah, he gets to be taken care of Kakashi-kun, so if I were him, I wouldn't complain, ne? XD **

**This is a Christmas present from me to you, another chappie (at least, it's for the people who enjoy my story xD) and finally some fluffiness… though not much o.o… ! Oh joy!**

**Let's try it again then: Have a very merry Christmas and my you all get loads of presents! (especially Kakashi and Iruka plushies!) -pokes Chapter 7- yeah, I said that there too, but I didn't think of updating so soon T.T **

**Enjooooooooy -huggles everyone- **

**Chapter 8**

_Around the time where we left off_

After two hours of heavy torture, Iruka and Kakashi decided to call it a night. Well, they had actually been wanting to get out of the house an hour before that, but Ibiki (who, strangely enough, had shown up as well) had threatened to use a special jutsu he used to interrogate prisoners- they quickly changed their minds. But, even the feared Jounin himself became drunk not too long after the threat so it was safe for Iruka and Kakashi to escape the party and head for home.

On the way, they didn't really speak a lot too each other as they still felt rather awkward about the former 'kiss'. Not that you could really call it a kiss- there had been a mask in front of Kakashi's face and of course the little fact that Iruka had missed the Jounins mouth. Still, they were afraid of talking to one another.

Kakashi didn't mind it- hell no, actually. It was actually from that simple kiss that he knew he was in love with the Chuunin. He had never had that felt this before in his life, but he was pretty sure that the feeling he had when being around him was love. But why did he have to fall in love with him? It had been fairly obvious that Iruka didn't like him, since he didn't want to kiss Kakashi. No, he definitely didn't love him back.

"So, did you get me anything for Christmas tomorrow?" Iruka joked- he wanted to break the silence as it was highly uncomfortable. Kakashi chuckled.

"Actually, I have," he replied, his eye crinkling. Iruka nodded.

"I did too." Again a silence. They were walking through the forest (Kurenai's house was located in the forest, just outside of the village), both of them looking at the ground- they apparently found the ground very fascinating.

"So, do you ever celebrate Christmas with others or by yourself?" Kakashi was the one to break it this time, though his voice did sound a bit weak. Iruka shrugged.

"No, I didn't celebrate alone," he replied, smiling. "I celebrate it with Naruto, but since he's not here… I guess it's you and me tomorrow. " They both went silent again and thought about team 7. Naruto had gone off with Jiraiya, Sakura was training with Tsunade and Sasuke… well, Sasuke was completely lost. There was nothing left of team 7 and they both knew it. For a while, they walked quietly again, thinking about everything that had happened- Naruto's name certainly did bring a lot of memories up, especially for Iruka who was starting to feel a little bit lonely. _No, Kakashi is with me tomorrow. I won't be alone._

"Nice night," Iruka pointed out after a while, looking at the stars. They were walking on a small bridge, which hadn't been very stable for a long time, but was never actually repaired since nobody actually used it. It was sometimes used by small kids who wanted to take a shortcut into the forest to play and in Kakashi's and Iruka's case, they needed a shortcut to the apartment. The water beneath them was pretty rough and not very far from the little bridge was a waterfall. The water was also very deep, so if any of the kids should fall into the river it could be very dangerous. Kakashi merely nodded, before he felt something shooting right passed him. He quickly took a kunai out and threw it at the tree where it came from, not noticing Iruka who had fallen into the water after being hit by the shuriken.

A man fell from the tree, kunai sticking out of his shoulders- Kakashi couldn't see clearly if he was dead or not, but he had no time to worry about that as he noticed that Iruka wasn't standing next to him anymore. Panicking, he started looking in the water for the Chuunin, who had clearly taken that shuriken. After a couple of seconds, Kakashi saw something brown in the water, heading towards the waterfall.

"Iruka!" Kakashi yelled, but Iruka was unconscious and couldn't get out of the water himself. Kakashi quickly concentrated and tried his best not to let his emotions take control of him- he had to rescue him, he had to. He drew chakra to his feet, feeling the energy flowing, before dashing to the waterfall, not taking his eyes off the young man who was still passed out and probably wouldn't wake up any time soon, especially after crashing into a small rock (it certainly wasn't the Chuunin's lucky day). When he reached the point where Iruka was, he concentrated all of his chakra to the proper amount and jumped on the water, running towards the Chuunin and taking him out of the river.

He laid him down gently on the soft grass. Iruka was still breathing and started to cough up a lot of water, before passing out again. The wound from the shuriken looked pretty bad, but he would live. After examining Iruka for a bit, he decided to take him back to the apartment- he could treat him there and Kakashi figured he wouldn't enjoy spending Christmasday inside the hospital all day. Kakashi gently took the unconscious Chuunin in his arms and hurried back to the apartment. He never thought about the ninja who had attacked them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

Iruka moaned as he slowly opened his eyes with a stinging pain in his shoulders. He looked around and noticed that he was lying in his own room, but he really couldn't remember even getting there. He remembered falling into the water, but that had been it.

"Ah, you're awake," Kakashi walked into his bedroom, raising two fingers. Iruka had been sleeping soundly all night and he had managed to pull out the shuriken and bandage his shoulder properly. Iruka's shoulder would be alright and it would be safe for him to get out of bed, though Kakashi had thought about a bit of an evi- no, a _brilliant _plan to spend some time alone with the Chuunin. He simply would tell him that there had been poison in that shuriken and that he should stay in bed for the whole day. This would give Kakashi one whole day alone with him _and _he had a good excuse to touch Iruka, since it would be necessary to 'examine' his wounds. In his mind he rubbed his hands together and laughed evilly (Orochimaru-style!). "Here, I made you breakfast," he continued, handing Iruka a plate. Iruka took it gratefully, after his stomach started to rumble heavily. Kakashi chuckled slightly, settling himself next to the bed on a chair. Again, he had a nice excuse to watch him in his sleep, since he had been sitting in that chair for the whole night. "Let's take a look at your shoulder, it looked pretty bad yesterday. The shuriken probably had poison in it, but I managed to withdraw it all from your body so you should be ok- you are not allowed to get out of bed today though!" Iruka objected of course.

In the back of his mind, Kakashi was relieved Iruka was still alive and alright. After he knew for certain Iruka would be safe in his apartment, he immediately warned some of the other Shinobi's that there had been an attack- they did not find the man who was responsible for it. It was obvious he had been aiming for Kakashi, but instead hit Iruka- the Jounin honestly didn't want to get Iruka into any danger and he scowled at himself for not taking that shuriken for him.

Kakashi figured that it must have been a missing nin, hired by someone. It was probable that someone wanted Kakashi dead. _Another one to add on the list, _he thought lazily as he watched Iruka eating his food. He smiled at the Chuunin, who finished it so rapidly it kind of reminded him of Naruto eating ramen.

"Do I really have to stay in bed?" Iruka asked him, almost whining, after finishing his breakfast. He had his eyebrows raised. "I feel fine, my shoulder only hurts a bit," he continued, while blushing heavily when Kakashi started to feel around his shoulders a bit. His fingers were so warm and… comforting.

"Sorry, it can't be helped," Kakashi said eventually, enjoying the warm flesh underneath his fingertips.

"What happened then?" Iruka inquired. He remembered getting hit by a shuriken and was rather curious about the story. "I mean, who was the attacker?" Kakashi shrugged.

"No idea, but it was probably a missing nin who was hired. He didn't seem to be really skilled and he was gone when we started looking for him. I think I hit him in the shoulder, before getting you out of the water as you were unconscious, so I didn't have any time to go after him. Tsunade says someone is after me, probably one of the nearby countries wanting to take me out or something, she says." He sighed and reluctantly took his hands off the Chuunin as the 'examination' had already taken too long. "Merry Christmas by the way, you want to unwrap the presents? A couple of people had dropped off some gifts for you when they heard you were attacked yesterday and some of your students stopped by as well." Iruka raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, news spreads fast then," he replied. Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah, I had to warn some people after you got attacked- they didn't get the man though. Anyway, I'll get the presents," he grinned at the Chuunin before walking out of the bedroom. About one minute later, he came back with about ten gifts in his hands. While he was gone, Iruka quickly took his present for Kakashi from under his bed and held it behind his back. "Let's start with mine first then," he threw a small box at Iruka, who caught it. Inside there was a kunai, only slightly longer and heavier than your regular one. "It's really handy when you have learned how to use that kunai, you can hit opponents more critical with it," Kakashi explained. Iruka smiled. It was pretty typical to get a weapon from the Jounin- actually, he hadn't expected anything else from him.

"Thanks, and here's mine, merry Christmas," Iruka said cheerfully, ignoring the pain in his shoulder when he gave his gift to Kakashi. He opened it curiously, with his heart thumping in his throat. _Oh God, _he thought to himself, _if this keeps up, I'm going to be like Sakura whenever she sees Sasuke. _

"Wow," Kakashi said, taking it out of the box. "I can't believe this! How did you get it?" His eyes were very wide at this point and he seemed to be in shock for a moment. Iruka scratched his scar, blushing.

"Well, I sent a letter to Naruto about it, and he sent this back to me," Iruka started. He really didn't mean on _ever _buying one of those disgusting Icha Icha novels, but Kakashi liked them, so he decided to try and get his hands on the most recent book that wasn't even out in Konoha yet. Iruka chuckled. "He also wrote with that _'Iruka-sensei, I can't believe you're a pervert like Jiraiya-sensei and Kakashi-sensei'_!' So I have some explaining to do when he gets home." He said, but then lowered his eyes at the thought of the young boy and realised he really did miss him- even though he was loud and annoying.

"I think this is the best present anyone has ever given me," Kakashi said truthfully, hugging his new book. This cheered Iruka up a bit- Kakashi was really happy with his present and he certainly did remind him of Naruto when Iruka had given him his frog wallet two years ago. "Oh, you have to open the rest of the gifts," Kakashi said, taking his attention off the book and grabbing one of the presents. "Let's see, this one is from Gai. Oh dear, you really want to open that one?" Iruka chuckled, taking the bright green box out of Kakashi's hands and opening it.

When he took out his present, Kakashi couldn't control his laughter and Iruka flushed. The man had actually given him a green suit, similar to the one Gai and Lee wore. "Oh. My. God." Iruka merely said, raising an eyebrow.

"I know, I can't believe he actually gave you one of those!" Kakashi said laughing. "I mean, not that you wouldn't look sexy in them or anything, but still!" Iruka's eyes started to widen and his face started to redden even more. _What _did he say?

"_What _did you say?" He asked sharply. Kakashi's laughter started to fade and he pretended to look confused.

"I can't believe he actually gave you one of those?" He asked, though he knew damn well what it was Iruka was asking about- he couldn't believe he had actually said that out loud. Damn him. He wanted to die again. Iruka shrugged.

"No, after that," he continued. "You said something about looking sexy?" He became even more red- which was already almost impossible. Kakashi scratched his head, trying not to lose his cool.

"No, I don't recall saying anything like that," he said, obviously lying, though he hoped Iruka would drop the subject and continue unwrapping his gifts. Though Kakashi hoped he would unwrap _him _and have hot, steamy- he slapped himself inside his head again. What the hell was wrong with him? Iruka was wounded, he couldn't do anything and he had to stay in bed for three da- Oh wait, he made that up. Right. Well, he couldn't do anything, because the Chuunin wasn't gay. Yup. "Look!" Kakashi said quickly, before Iruka had the chance to continue questioning him. "There's a note from Gai with it. '_Dear Iruka-sensei, great teacher of my beloved students! I heard about the attack from my esteemed rival Kakashi-sensei and decided to give you something that would help with training! You shall have to get used to it for a while, but you will soon start wearing it even at nights! I also gave your student Naruto one of these, so you two will have matching outfits while training, like me and Lee! Greetings, Gai.' _Kakashi briefly imagined Naruto and Iruka having the same haircuts and outfits like Gai and Lee had and chuckled, before taking the next present.

"This ones from Genma, hm… If you can't figure out what this is, you don't deserve to be a ninja," he said thoughtfully, looking at the very thin and pointy wrapped gift. Iruka laughed at Kakashi's comment and indeed- it was quite obvious what it was. Iruka quickly unwrapped the senbon en looked at it, one eyebrow raised.

"You know, I've always said to Genma that someday that thing will end up in his throat and that it would kill him," he pointed out.

"Oh, what does the note say?" He reached out for the little note that was still attached to the wrapping paper. "_Iruka, this is my _

_lucky senbon. I've had it for almost three years now, and I hope it will help you! Good luck, Genma." _The Chuunin made a disgusted face. "He had it for _three years? _That's nasty," Kakashi chuckled, before handing him the next package.

"From Asuma, probably a pack of cigarettes or something," he said flatly, while Iruka was opening it. And to his astonishment, Kakashi was indeed right about it. "Ah, let's read the note. '_Dear Iruka, here is a pack of my favourite brand of cigarettes, imported from some country in the East. I realise you don't smoke, but there is always time to start! And don't believe that crap that they write on the packages, like 'smoking kills'. Ninja's kill. Animals kill. Cigarettes don't kill! So enjoy them, Asuma.' _Well, that was odd."

The next couple of gifts were from his students- Konohamaru had given him a couple of sunglasses, who probably belonged to Ebisu. Iruka grinned slightly at the thought of Ebisu running around his apartment, looking for his glasses- yes, he kind of did like Konohamaru's pranks. The next were from other students- a couple of drawings, a shurikenset from Tenten and some ointment from Hinata. Iruka smiled at each and every gift when he unwrapped them, missing Naruto more and more.

"Your students must really love you," Kakashi said softly, wishing he could have said it somewhat differently. Iruka smiled sadly again.

"Yeah," he replied. "I love them too, you know. They're really important to me, I don't think I would ever want to give up teaching. I met some fantastic kids while being a teacher." Kakashi nodded.

"Like Naruto?"

"Yeah," he croaked, trying to get his voice back again. "I really miss him," he continued eventually. The Jounin nodded again.

"I'm sure he misses you too, Iruka." They both smiled at each other.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_That afternoon_

"No! No, no, no, no! Dammit!"

"Watch out, or I'll get you!"

"What? Where can you get me?"

"If I told you that, you would beat me…"

"Damn Iruka, tell meeeeeee!"

"No way," Iruka grinned at the Jounin, making his move. Yes, they had been playing chess all afternoon. And he was winning.

"Checkmate," he continued cheerfully, looking at the angry Jounin who was looking desperately at the chessboard.

"Damn," he grunted. "Come one, six out of eleven!" Iruka shook his head.

"Nah, I'm bored… let's do something else I can beat you with," Kakashi was about to protest to this when a bird tapped on the window. He moaned.

"I have a mission," he said to the Chuunin. "Though I don't understand why- it hasn't been a month yet. Probably urgent. You'll be fine by yourself, right?" Iruka nodded, watching Kakashi as he put on his vest and strapped his surikenholster around his leg.

"Be careful," he said, as the Jounin jumped out of the window.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas -grins- **

**Thank you all for your reviews, I hope you will continue reviewing! **

**Ah, Kakashi-chan will be alright… I think… you'll have to find out -laughs Orochimaru style- Anyway, this chapter will not go according to the current Naruto manga, just so you know xD Well, not that it couldn't have happened in the time Naruto was gone.. -shrugs- **

**Mimihatake: lol, sorry, I don't really like doing Iruka's perspective xD I like Kakashi's better, and I think I write that one better too xD **

**Further more, I tried to make a kick ass Kakashi-fighting- and-kicking-butt chapter, but I don't know how it turned out o.o… lol, perhaps a bit boring? I have no idea. I'm bad at fighting scenes, so I hope this turned out at least a bit good xD **

**Ah, and a happy New Year everybody!**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 9 **

_Infiltrate. Destroy. Leave. Don't get killed. _

Those were the Hokage's orders, though the last one wasn't really that necessary. All the other Jounin had gone off on mission's as well so none was available, which forced the Hokage to use Kakashi, she had explained to him. It wasn't really weird either- he knew his 'vacation' wouldn't last that long, seeing he was the infamous Copy Nin.

He was rather bummed to hear this though- he was actually enjoying his time with Iruka and didn't want to do any missions, crazy as it sounds. Ever since he became a Chuunin, all he did was completing missions and reading his books- he never thought it would be any fun to 'hang out' with other people that much, though he did have several friends. Well, they were more or less acquaintances. He knew them by name.

Then his thoughts went back to Iruka- he was his friend. He cared more for him than he had ever cared for someone, besides Rin, the Yondaime, Obito and his father of course. But they had all died, leaving him all alone. For a while he felt like he was surrounded by darkness, his only goal in life completing his mission's and reading every single Icha Icha volume. And then he met team 7 and things started to get a bit brighter, even though they were a bunch of brats. He smiled at the thought of the hyperactive, blond boy, the pink-haired girl who only had eyes for Sasuke and last- the young avenger. They gave him a taste of friendship again.

And then he met Iruka. He had seen him at the mission's office a lot of course, but he never noticed anything truly special about him. He was good looking- nice face and a body to drool over- but he had never actually paid much attention to the Chuunin. Until that faithful day the Hokage gave him the Babysitting Mission (as he had called it). Then gradually the sun began to shine for him and he saw light everywhere he looked. He smirked slightly- perhaps that old woman had known this would happen? He shook his head at that thought- no, she wasn't _that_ smart.

But still he was worried about what had happened the evening before- Iruka had been attacked because of _him_. And even though Kakashi decided he would protect Iruka, _his_ Iruka, with his life, he was never certain the Chuunin would be safe enough. He did not want to get hurt again.

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he jumped from tree to tree, going as fast as he could.

Rushing through the forest, he started thinking about his mission, that was important right now. _"A lot is happening right now Kakashi, chances are a war might break out. We have to prevent that from happening, as our forces are not yet strong enough to withhold an attack- as you know, we lost many fine Shinobi during the Chuunin-incident, so we should take measurements. I have sent several people to investigate and gather information, and I was able to gain a lot. Everything became clear after receiving it, the attack on Iruka's class was most likely a stunt the Village of the Hidden Mist tried to pull off- they wanted to prevent the next generation of Shinobi. They are also trying to take out Jounin, especially you, which explains the sudden attack on you yesterday. It is of course not yet fully proven, that's why I need to send you on this mission. You need to infiltrate a building close to the border of the Fire Country, where several Missing Nin have been living. They have been hired by the Hidden Mist village, probably so that we could never truly prove that they are the ones responsible for these incidents. Anyway, you need to infiltrate the building and try to get information, either out of them or from papers or letters they have. Good luck on your mission, Hatake-san. And I'm sorry you can't enjoy your vacation anymore." _

Kakashi cringed at the word 'war'- he had never liked them a lot. Probably because he had some bad experiences with them. He snorted at that thought; everybody had bad experiences with wars.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

He should almost be there by now- the boarder was only a day travelling, if you would continue fast. He had quickly glanced over several plans of the building he needed to infiltrate and it wouldn't exactly be a problem- though they probably had a lot of guards out. Well, then again, maybe not. After all, they weren't exactly counting on anyone to find them, right? The building had been an old, small hospital for weakened Shinobi during one of the wars and had been abandoned for almost twenty years now- Kakashi was actually surprised it was still standing there.

"Ah, there it is," he muttered under his breath, settling himself behind a big bush about ten meters from the building, which seemed it would collapse soon. Not wanting to take any risks again, and not wanting to repeat his past mistake, he quickly lifted his headband and showed his Sharingan. He noticed a trap had been set not very far from where he was sitting- but it was very sloppy work. Kakashi didn't see any traps behind that, though there was one guard sitting in front of the entrance of the building. _What a bunch of idiots_, Kakashi thought. _Were they simply stupid or was it meant to look that way? _

He focussed and thought about his options. He could send a shadow clone out, in case there were any others, but then his presence would be known. He could of course throw a kunai at the shinobi sitting in front of the hospital, but if there are any others out there they would immediately know where he was hiding, so that was a big no. Closing his eyes and making a few hand seals, he produced five exact replicas of himself. This was probably the best method for him.

Two of the Shadow Clones crawled silently to another position. Kakashi then sent one of them out of the bushes to attack the missing nin. Grinning, the ninja simply remained in a sitting position, which made the real Kakashi smirk. _Heh, so it was a trap, eh?_ The Shadow Clone didn't even came close to the shinobi, when three shuriken hit him, making him vanish with a _poof_. Good, Kakashi now knew where the other guards were hiding themselves and sent his other clones to the places where the shuriken came from, leaving the guard alone, who was still looking for the real person who wanted to attack them.

Three missing nin fell dead from the trees surrounding the hospital, alarming the other nin. Though it was already too late for him as well- a simple slice from Shadow- Clone-Kakashi's kunai sent him to the next world.

"What the-" the shadow clone exclaimed, before another shuriken hit him and with a small 'poof', he vanished. The real Jounin's eyes crinkled behind his mask as he finally jumped out of the bushes, hitting the other shinobi that had again given away their locations. Kakashi knew that this was the end of their ambush and casually walked to the building.

According to the Hokage's information, there were in total thirteen missing nin at this location. Kakashi had started to gather a lot of other little facts as well- the nins were at a Chuunin level, they did not have any high skills and they were not that smart, as they had put seven of their men outside, guarding the building. They should have simply put boobytraps around it and two look-outs on the roof. Not that it would help against Kakashi of course, but it would give him a bit of a challenge.

_Crap_, he thought, as he walked inside the building_. There I go being arrogant and careless again, I should watch out. I have to get back to Iruka._ His eyes widened as this thought roamed through his head- he has to get back to Iruka? He couldn't exactly comprehend this thought, and he didn't really have time for it either as he had to dodge a kunai-shower.

He only felt their presence just in time and easily dodged all the kunai's, before attacking the biggest nin of the lot. He was knocked out immediately, giving Kakashi the chance to kick the slightly smaller one, who was attacking him now as he thought he saw an opening. This was foolish of him- the Copy Nin easily pierced a kunai through his throat. _Three to go_, he thought to himself, as another missing nin fell to the ground. The attack was over again and he casually continued walking, searching for the others.

"Ah, there you are," he said cheerfully, his eyes crinkling again. He had found the room where the rest of the missing nin were- they were busy ripping apart several papers, letters and reports. They froze when they saw the infamous Konoha ninja. "Destroying the evidence are we? That's alright, I guess I'll just have to bring one of you back to my village," and with that, Kakashi ran towards them, throwing a couple of shuriken as a diversion. They easily dodged them, but this gave Kakashi a small opening to attack them properly- it didn't take very long until the battle was over. One ninja was unconscious and had been tied up, the others were dead.

As Kakashi was jumping from tree to tree with the man on his back, only one thought remained in his head.

_Iruka would be safe for now. _

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_The next day_

"Yo," he said, raising two fingers up. Iruka jumped up from the chair he was sitting on- why couldn't the man ever use the door?

"Why don't you ever use the door?" He said, looking angrily at Kakashi, who merely scratched his head, pretending to look hurt.

"You're not even interested in how the mission went?" He pouted behind his mask, forgetting Iruka couldn't really see it. But the tone in his voice said enough as it was just as whiny as Naruto's.

"F-fine," he stammered, trying to keep himself from blushing. "How _did_ your mission go then?" Kakashi's eyes crinkled.

"Can't tell you, top secret," he replied happily.

"You know, you really are an asshole," the Chuunin replied flatly. Kakashi chuckled.

"Thanks, I do my best," he walked stiffly to the couch and settled himself on it. Iruka went to the couch as well and sat next to him, watching the Jounin as he closed his eyes and sighed.

"You tired?" He asked.

"Yeah, I had to carry this big guy all the way to Konoha, he was really heavy," he sighed, rubbing his temples. Iruka hesitated for a moment, but then gave Kakashi a slight nudge.

"Sit on the floor between my legs for a bit," he commanded, which made Kakashi raise an eyebrow. _Ah, being the naughty teacher, eh? Well, you won't hear me complaining,_ he thought as he obediently sat down on the floor. Iruka blushed heavily when he started to massage Kakashi's shoulders- it was a special technique which would stimulate the flow of chakra through the body and would give the Jounin a little more energy if done correctly. But it was a bit weird giving him that. Kakashi had to refrain himself from moaning when the Chuunin's soft hands started to gently touch him and he closed his eyes again. _Not exactly what I had in mind… well, we have to start with something. _

"You wanna get something to drink? There's a new bar opening in town, I wanted to check it out," he said, without even thinking about it. Iruka's hands were just so… mesmerising, he wasn't thinking straight. Iruka looked hesitant.

"Well, I'm… not a very good drinker. Actually, I never drink at all," Kakashi snorted.

"A couple of beers won't hurt you, come on!" Iruka doubted.

"Well… alright, I guess a couple won't be that bad," he replied finally.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_A couple of hours later… _

"Kakashi, I think that waiter put something in my beer," Iruka pointed out, while he swayed down the sidewalks of Konoha. He had been right when he said he wasn't a good drinker: he was completely drunk. Which made Kakashi smirk. And a smirking Kakashi was never good when one was drunk.

"Really? What did he put in it?"

"Alcohol," the other replied flatly, which made Kakashi chuckle. He didn't mind the fact he had to hold Iruka most of the way back home, not at all actually. The Jounin had been thinking of his options with the drunken Chuunin of course, he basically wanted to give into his physical needs. But could he really do that to Iruka? After all, it wouldn't be fair to him.

After a couple of minutes of walking, they finally arrived at the apartment building, which was quite an accomplishment, according to Kakashi. "Just stand there for a bit, Iruka," he said to the other man, pushing him to the door of an other apartment as he was trying to find the key of their door. In the mean time, Iruka was sure he felt something poking his ass. He looked behind, but didn't see anything, so he looked back at Kakashi. Then he felt something poking again, so he looked back again. And he still saw nothing.

"Kakashi," he said suspiciously. "Are you poking my ass?" The Jounin chuckled.

"No, I'm right here. How could I be poking you?" _Even though I would want to._ Iruka shrugged, before leaning against the door again. There it was again!

"I think this door is perverted…" the Chuunin finally concluded, before poking the door back, until Kakashi pulled him away from it.

"No, I think you were leaning against the doorknob," he said, refraining himself from laughing. "Here, sit down on the couch while I get some water for you. Boy, you're going to have a hang over in the morning…" Iruka nodded, not really knowing what the Jounin was talking about. He sat down and… he fell on the floor. Alright, who moved that couch? When Iruka saw no one standing there, he concluded that the couch moved by itself.

"I think my couch is possessed," he said loudly, standing up. Which was easier said than done. "Maybe I should throw it out of the window? He could kill us in our sleep," he continued thoughtfully, while pulling himself up from the floor again, as he had fallen back. He sat down carefully on his chair, he was really hoping there was no need of throwing that out of his house as well.

"Ah, don't worry, I don't think the couch can do any harm," Kakashi replied and gave Iruka the water before sitting on the couch himself. Iruka gasped.

"The couch likes you more than me!" The Jounin chuckled again. He hesitated for a moment- should he…?

"No it doesn't," Kakashi was slapping himself in his mind right now- why couldn't he control himself? "Come sit next to me, I promise you it won't move." Iruka thought about it for a moment, but then slowly stood up and walked towards the couch, almost tripping. He sat down rather close to Kakashi and drank up his water.

"Hm," he said. "This is some good water. Best water I ever had." The Jounin chuckled again- he was so cute when he was drunk. He should take him out to drink more often, actually, they had sake-night tomorrow, so perhaps he could take Iruka with him… and then Kakashi was pulled out of his thoughts as Iruka decided on resting his head against his shoulder. _His_ shoulder. "Hm, you're soft." Kakashi had to fight back a blush as he gently wrapped his arm around the Chuunin. "I like water." The Jounin chuckled.

"Really? What else do you like?" Iruka thought for a moment.

"I like my couch. I like ramen," he stopped for a second, apparently thinking this question over once more. Kakashi knew what his next question would be, though he would let Iruka finish his answer first. "I like Naruto. I like teaching. I like you." Alright, this was starting to get interesting.

"Iruka, do you like men?" The Chuunin giggled. He giggled! Ok, so Kakashi had to admit it was rather cute when he did that, though the sound was a bit odd, especially when it came from the scary-but-yet-oh-so-adorable Iruka.

"Yes," he finally replied. If Kakashi didn't know any better, he thought his heart would explode. "I like you," he said once more before lifting his head up and gently kissed the bit of skin between Kakashi's mask and eye. The Jounin froze at this- what should he do next? He shouldn't take advantage of him, right? But Kakashi soon got his answer: Iruka had laid his head down on his shoulder again and was snoring heavily.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Wow, I got some REALLY great reviews this time! O.O -feels proud- I hope you'll all continue to encourage me to write on xD I think I'm gonna answer the reviews, hehe!**

**Mange Wolf: Wow, thanks! I really try to keep them in character, but I'm not sure if I succeed at it, thanks for saying that! XD **

**Anon: If it had been me, I'd probably have kissed that spot too -grins- thanks! **

**Ffpanda: Cookies? OO …. I'd do anything for those!**

**just a rambling romantic: isn't it cute? I'd love to hear a giggling Iruka xD**

**BlackMystick: I hope you'll succeed at getting your crush drunk -laughs- perhaps I should try it too, ne? XD**

**Yuki Bombay: Thanks!**

**Pie Junkie: Exactly, that's why I made Iruka drunk -grins- since someone (I can't remember who it was O.O… and I'm too lazy to look it up xD) asked if I could do some from Iruka's point of view.. so now you all know how Iruka was feeling too! **

**Oro-sama: You too! **

**Rubba Dub Dub Three Men in a Tub: (love your name xD) It wasn't really meant as a cliffie o.o.. but.. I'm sorry xD **

**shapeshifter mina-san: Thanks -grins-**

**Inuyashafeudalgirl: I feel honoured! Lol, maybe you can get addicted to yaoi too, ne? XD**

**Grace: Thanks a lot! I'm glad you feel that way! XD**

**On to the story! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 10**

Xxxx

_The next day_

Iruka woke up with a headache as big as the Fire Country. And he was nauseous. In fact, he had to throw up and therefore quickly ran towards the bathroom- he barely made it in time.

Kakashi however, felt quite good that morning. Actually, Kakashi felt more than good, he felt _great_. In fact, he felt so good that he wanted to float fifty centimetres above the ground or perhaps skip merrily through the apartment, or maybe give everybody he saw a great, big hug and tell them he loved them, or maybe buy tons of flowers, skip merrily through Konoha while throwing them at the villagers and _then _tell them he loved each and everyone. However, he refrained himself from doing so, as Iruka needed some water right now.

"Good morning," he said, trying not to sound too cheerful, but failed entirely. Iruka slowly stood and swayed as he was a bit dizzy and still had his headache. Kakashi saw this and gently grabbed Iruka's shoulder with his free hand to keep him from falling, which would have made said Chuunin blush if he hadn't been so focused on his headache. "I've got some painkillers and water for you, you'd better drink this," the Jounin continued.

Twenty minutes later, Iruka started to feel a bit better and dared to eat a bit of breakfast in the hopes of keeping it all in. He also tried to remember what he had done last night- he knew Kakashi had taken him out for drinks, but he couldn't quite remember what happened when they got home. His eyes widened for a second or two, before realising he wasn't… sore anywhere. He must've simply fallen asleep.

After he ate something he grabbed his plate and walked to the kitchen and placed it on the counter. When he did so, he suddenly felt someone standing rather close behind him and he saw an arm next to him. "What the hell do you think you're doing Kakashi?" Iruka barked at him, thinking Kakashi wanted to… grab him or something. Well, he might have been overreacting at that time, but you mustn't forget the Jounin had been the reason of his hang over and Iruka wasn't too pleased with him right now.

"Hm?" Kakashi said, pretending to be uninterested. "Oh, I was only grabbing an apple. No need to be that touchy about it," he replied eventually. He was very pleased with himself when he saw the slightly smaller man blush heavily, before giving him an angry glare.

"I hate you," he simply said, turning around to face the Jounin who was still standing close to him.

"Ah, but the line between love and hate is a thin one," he replied happily. Was it just Iruka, or was he getting closer again? Iruka pulled himself away from this thought and looked even more angry at Kakashi. He snorted.

"Which idiot said that? The one writing those Icha Icha books?" _Wow, he's good, _ the Jounin thought. Indeed he had read it in one of his Icha Icha volumes when the lovely Lolita was running away from her obvious future lover Mandengo (he honestly didn't know why they had such weird names, but that didn't matter), who- but he was trailing off again. As if Iruka had read his mind, he said, "Ah, so I was right about that. It's the same guy Naruto is training with, right? How could I have ever let that boy go off training with _that _pervert?"

"Well, Jiraiya is also one of the Legendary Three," Kakashi mumbled, which made Iruka snort again. Before the Chuunin could reply, Kakashi's face had come even more closer to his face- alright, this was getting weird… Not that Iruka completely complained of course, but it was slightly unexpected. Kakashi however, was very amused at the startled look the Chuunin gave him when their two heads were not even two centimetres apart. After the man had fallen asleep on his shoulder yesterday, they sat like that for a while and Kakashi had enjoyed the warmth of the other mans body, the sweet smell that he had around him and the lovely snoring sound he made. Then the man had decided to put him in bed.

When he saw Iruka sleeping peacefully in his bed, Kakashi had only one thought roaming through his head:

_I can't live without him. _

Kakashi snorted at the memory of this- they had known each other for, what? A couple of months now? How could he possibly think like that? _Ah, but you do love him, _a voice said in the back of his head. _You'd do anything for him. _Yes, that was certainly true.

Wanting to feel that body against him again, Kakashi put both his arms around the others waist and pulled him against him. At first, Iruka tensed, but after a couple of seconds he relaxed again. Kakashi was grateful he didn't pull back. "Kakashi," he murmured into his chest. He had no idea of what to do next- should he pull away, or should he stay like that? He didn't want to give Kakashi the idea that he wanted a relationship with him or anything like that… well, a part of him wanted that- a part of him felt safe with the Jounin, felt secure. But the other part of him was scared of losing someone close again- that was probably his biggest fear. He snorted inwardly. He was always giving lectures on how people die to protect you and how they become strong because of loving someone, and here he was fearing one of the people he loved would die.

Kakashi's hands were running down his back and for a moment, Iruka wondered if he should pull that goddamn mask off. "Iru-" the Jounin merely could say, before someone entered the apartment with a pale face. It was a Chuunin, though Kakashi didn't recognise him. For a moment, the Chuunin was taken aback by the sight of the two men standing so close together (Iruka had been able to take one step behind when he heard the door slam open), but quickly gathered himself.

"Kakashi-sensei, Hokage-same needs to see you, it's urgent! Three children have been kidnapped, they're being held just outside the village. Please hurry!" Kakashi gave him one small nod. The young man was about to leave the apartment again, before Iruka's voice stopped him.

"Who are being held captive?" He asked, trying to sound too worried. He failed at this though- Kakashi could easily hear the panic in his voice.

"Konohamaru-kun, Fuuko-chan and Toshi-chan," the Chuunin walked away, leaving a trembling Iruka. Kakashi watched him, before walking to the door and putting on his sandals. He walked back to the other man and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll bring them back safe and sound."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Ten minutes later_

"They're hiding in an old abandoned house, just beyond the river. They sent us this note an hour after the children went playing. I suppose they left the village without guidance because Konohamaru convinced them to," the Hokage shrugged, before continuing, "here, read it Kakashi-san." She handed him a small note, at which Kakashi cringed when he finished reading it.

_Hokage, _

_In exchange for the life of Hatake Kakashi, we will return the three children to your village. Give us your reply before sunset tomorrow._

"More Missing Nin?" Kakashi asked, and he got a small nod as a reply. The infamous Copy Nin shrugged and tried to remain cool.

"They're probably stronger as well, I suppose the Hidden Mist Village underestimated us before, but I reckon they won't do that anymore. I believe they fear you most of all as you are the last remaining student of Konoha's Yellow Flash. We have already sent ANBU down to the forest and I'm sure they'll manage the situation but," she closed her eyes for a second. "You need to watch it, Hatake. You need to be careful from now on- it's you they want for now, so keep close to the village. I won't send you on any missions without guidance from another Jounin or Chuunin, from now on you'll need to work in a team." Kakashi was about to answer, before he heard a small beep coming from his pocket. _Oh, shit, _he thought and without saying goodbye or explain what was going on, he jumped out of the window and made his way to the forest.

Xxxxxxxxxx

_In the meanwhile_

Iruka was standing in his apartment, watching as Kakashi left to go to the Hokage. What the fuck was going on? He needed to go to the forest to save the kids! _Well, _he thought as he grabbed some shurikens and kunais, including the one Kakashi had given him for Christmas, _if he's not going to save them, I will. _

Barely two minutes after leaving his home, Iruka was already rushing through the forest, trying to find his students' chakra. Then he heard some screams not too far from where he was and without thinking of some sort of plan, he ran towards the noises and yelling- he had recognised one voice to be the one of Konohamaru. He saw the missing nin standing right outside an old house, one was holding the young boy up in the air with not much effort. _Alright Iruka, control yourself. You have to control yourself or else there are going to get people hurt and- _ he stopped thinking as a kunai was thrown at Konohamaru, while the boy couldn't even dodge it! _Cowards! _ Iruka ran towards him, quickly grabbing one of his own and throwing it at the other one.

The kunai that had been thrown by the missing nin hit a tree instead.

Still having the advantage of the surprise attack, Iruka kicked the missing nin holding Konohamaru. He quickly grabbed the young boy and held him in his arms as he glanced over to the house where he saw the two other children sitting tied up. He couldn't do anything else after that as a nin had appeared behind them and held a kunai to Iruka's throat. He swallowed, but didn't let go of Konohamaru who had buried his face into his teachers chest.

"Give that boy here, he's caused enough trouble," the other man hissed into his ears. Iruka tensed, holding Konohamaru holding tightly. "I want to kill him." The nin licked his lips at the very thought of killing the boy. _Psycho, _he thought.

"No," Iruka responded. "Konoha will not pay for dead children you know," he continued, trying to keep his voice under control. "I'm sure you know that." The other nins let out a cackle before answering that.

"Well, we never said we would give them back _alive_," one of the others replied, grinning heavily. "But I suppose that if you won't give him to us, we'll have to kill you first, your choice," he waited for a couple of seconds for a response from Iruka. When none came, he continued, "no? Ah well, later." He nodded at the missing nin standing behind Iruka, who was ready to cut his throat, when he suddenly got kicked away from Iruka. The Chuunin, who still held Konohamaru tightly, looked up and saw a silver-haired man, together with three others clearly from ANBU standing next to him. He felt _safe._

The ANBU quickly killed them and freed the other children while Iruka was still holding and soothing Konohamaru, who had seen death so near to him. Kakashi was checking Iruka for wounds (well, it was more or less an excuse to be able to touch the Chuunin in public), before the other two children ran to their sensei looking for the same comfort as he was giving Konohamaru.

Xxxxxxxxx

_One hour later_

The ANBU agreed to bring the children to the hospital, even though they weren't hurt at all. Well, besides another scare of those annoying missing nins who kept coming back to scare those poor children. Iruka was fine too, but slightly bitter about how Konohamaru had barely escaped death.

When the two shinobi were standing in Iruka's apartment, Iruka started to talk heavily about the experience, not noticing the pale face of Kakashi.

"-I mean, can you believe he actually wanted to kill Konohamaru? The poor boy couldn't even do anything and-"

"Why did you go into the forest?" Kakashi interrupted him, not caring if it was rude or not. You could say he was quite mad at the younger man for going into the forest alone like that, he could have been killed. Iruka was slightly taken aback by this question.

"Because it's my duty as their teacher, if I hadn't done so, Konohamaru would be dead by now and maybe the other kids as well. I mean, if this is about the pride you get out of killing missing nin or something, I'm sorry, but I couldn't sit here and do-"

"This has got nothing to do with my fucking pride!" Kakashi yelled at him, slamming his hand on the table. How could the Chuunin not know what this was about? How could he _not _know? Iruka raised an eyebrow.

"Then what is it Kakashi?" He inquired, and crossed his arms. The Jounin looked at the young man and- should he? Should he finally do what he had been longing to do all this time? Should he pull down his mask? What if he didn't like his face? He probably wouldn't like it, he couldn't like his face… "Kakashi? Tell me," Iruka said, walking towards him. At that point, Kakashi decided it was now or never for him. He couldn't continue living if he wouldn't do it now. He straightened, and put an arm around Iruka's waist to pull him closer to him. With his free hand, he pulled down his mask. Iruka's eyes widened when he saw what the Jounin was doing, but felt oddly relaxed.

"It is about you," the man murmured. "You could've died," and with that, he placed his other hand on the back of Iruka's head and kissed him. They didn't notice the strange bird that was sitting on the balcony, eyeing the two men with great interest.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I am SO sorry for taking this long folks! I don't know where to begin with my lame excuses… well, alright, first I went on vacation with my dad, then I had another idea for a new fanfic so I started on that one… THEN I went to my grandmothers place where I got a call from my dad saying that he and my mother are going to have a divorce -dies- I got kind of depressed by that, so I wasn't really in the mood for writing. Besides that fact, I didn't really know how to continue with it, but I finally found my muse again -laughs-**

**Anyway, I'm really sorry about it, hope you will forgive me xD**

**As for the reviews: OMG I got so many! That made me feel like writing again! I almost have 100 now and over 10.000 hits! I can't believe I have that much! THANK YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING! -waves- **

**And I'll try to make a good lemon chapter… somewhere in the very-near future… But I can't guarantee it will be any good xD**

**Enjoy this chapter, I hope you will review and I promise the next one will be a lot sooner xD**

**Chapter 11**

"Interesting," the man said to the other as they watched the screen.

"Certainly is," the other replied, grinning slightly. The small camera filmed two male ninja's kissing each other, both of them filled with passion and fire as they explored one another. Suddenly they stopped, but that didn't stop the two men watching the screen from developing their new plan. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"How the hell do I know what you're thinking? My IQ isn't as low as _yours, _but yes- I do believe we have a new plan in order to capture Konoha's Copy Nin," he summoned one of his underlings and said, "Get me Hase Ichiro, I've got a new job for him." The man nodded obediently, before rushing out of the room.

---

_At the same time, only somewhere else_

"Why'd you stop?" His brown eyes questioned the other man as he had decided to withdraw himself from him. Was this really such a good idea? Iruka… he could get hurt. He could die and leave him alone- but most of all, Iruka could _leave _him, he could decide he didn't love him after all. He didn't want that.

"I- I… this was a mistake, I'm sorry," he finally said as he pulled up his mask. He was about to leave, until Iruka grabbed his arm.

"No way you're leaving now," he said firmly, squeezing his arm gently. His voice was shaking slightly as he spoke. "You've got some explaining to do, I want you to be honest with me for just once- are you in love with me, or not? Because I'm getting so fucking tired of this! I want to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them, I have that right," he continued. Before Kakashi even knew what was going on, he was sitting on the window sill with Iruka standing right beside him. Perhaps he thought Iruka actually did deserve some honesty, especially after all that he had been going through.

"Go ahead," Kakashi mumbled softly. Iruka's hand was still clutching his arm, but he didn't mind the contact.

"Ok. Are you in love with me or not?" It took a while before he finally got his answer.

"Yes," Kakashi replied- his voice sounded very weak as if he was afraid of admitting it to the Chuunin. He got a small blush from the other man in return though, something that gave him a small amount of hope.

"Were you sent by the Hokage to go after Konohamaru?" To his surprise, Kakashi shook his head in response.

"No, she didn't want me to go actually. Those Missing Nin were after me so she sent some ANBU to help him," Kakashi knew exactly what question came after that, so he simply continued to explain. "I knew you were in danger- well, I didn't exactly know you were in danger, but I figured you had gone after Konohamaru by yourself when I heard my beeper."

"Beeper?" Iruka asked.

"Yes. Remember that kunai I gave you? It's actually a special one and whenever you use it, the beeper goes off so I can always protect you if you're in danger. My sensei gave me one too, that's where I got the idea from," he mused, looking rather pleased with himself when he saw the younger man blush a bit more.

"O-oh, alright," he stuttered in reply. Kakashi waited patiently for the next question though it took Iruka a while longer. Finally, the young man looked up and asked another one. "Why do you wear that mask all the time? If you want to remain anonymous, it won't really work you know… everybody would recognise you by your hair," he added. Kakashi cast down his eyes while he thought about it. He didn't really want to talk about why he wore it, but… it _was _Iruka, he could tell him.

"I look too much like my father," he finally said, which made Iruka raise an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand that," said he.

"I look like my father," Kakashi said once again. After seeing the questioning look again from Iruka, he decided that it was no use to make him understand by merely saying the reason. "I didn't really like my father when I was younger," he continued. "H-he… killed himself because he did something and I always resented him for leaving me like that. And I looked a lot like him, whenever I saw myself in the mirror I just saw him, so I started wearing a mask." For the first couple of seconds, Iruka was speechless- he had _never _expected an answer like that. He honestly didn't know what to say to that, so he put his hand on Kakashi's reassuringly.

"I'm really sorry about that, Kakashi," he finally said. Though blushing, he pulled Kakashi's mask slightly down to give him a peck on the cheek, which made the other man's face burn in return. Before Iruka could do anything, Kakashi had grabbed him around his waist and pulled him on his lap. His arms still held him in place gently and he rested his head on the other man's shoulders.

"Now it's my turn to ask some questions," he murmured, while his heartbeat was increasing. Iruka, who wanted to kill himself for blushing so easily, nodded. "Good," he said cheerfully. "How do you feel about me? Do you love me?" Iruka had seen this question coming- but the answer wasn't that easy. It took a while before he could reply to it.

"Yes, I think I do," he finally said. "At least, I can't tell for sure, I mean, how do you know that you love someone? I've never felt this way about someone before, that's for sure… and when you're with me I feel safe and… happy, and I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you." He turned his head to face the other man and looked at him with his brown eyes, while gently pulling down his mask again and kissing him once more on the lips. Kakashi was still stunned by what he had said- it certainly was something that he hadn't expected. Well, he had _hoped _for him to say a thing like that, but he never would've thought it would actually come true.

After he had come back to his senses, Kakashi finally started to kiss back while pulling the Chuunin closer to him, his hands racing up and down his back, trying to find a good place to rest them. The kiss at first was slow, experimental, hesitating. But it soon grew faster, more passionate, the fire inside them burning stronger until finally Kakashi tried to slip his tongue inside Iruka's mouth. The younger man opened his mouth immediately and their tongues clashed together, massaging each other while their hands were still roaming each other's body.

"Couch?" Iruka panted between their kiss, but quickly continued. His hands were grabbing Kakashi's silver hair as he moved slightly uncomfortable further into his lap, trying to get even closer to him.

"Bed," Kakashi replied and, while continuing their game of tonsil tennis, lifted Iruka up and carried him towards his bedroom. The younger man felt rather embarrassed that the other could pick him up so easily, but decided it didn't really matter right now. After all, they wouldn't have to break their wonderful, intense kiss this way. Which was a good thing. And he kind of liked the friction.

Placing Iruka gently on the bed, Kakashi took off his green vest and his headband, smothering the other with kisses while he was doing this. It didn't take long before Kakashi jumped on top of the Chuunin and started to kiss his neck. Iruka didn't refrain himself from moaning softly as he did so while his hands were clutching Kakashi's soft hair, pushing him further inside his mouth.

Kakashi had no idea what he was doing- was it good to move this fast? Kakashi figured it was, seeing they were both grown men, both sober and both in desperate need of each other. Besides, how could it be bad if it felt so _right_? And he knew he loved Iruka- he just knew it. This wasn't mere lust (though it certainly did play a part in it), this was something more- something he had never felt before in his life.

But, when the Jounin wanted to take off Iruka's vest, he heard a soft tapping noise on the window. He groaned, before looking up, leaving the confused Chuunin. Yup, just as he thought- that damn Hokage needed him again.

"Stupid old woman," he gritted his teeth. "Why the hell does she always need me when I'm _busy_?" He said, more to himself than to Iruka. The expression on his face became a bit more softer when he saw the young man underneath him, looking as if he wanted to kill the Godaime himself. "Sorry Iruka," he said, giving him one last kiss.

"No worries, we'll continue when you get back," the other said, grinning.

"Hell yes, don't you dare go anywhere until I get back," Kakashi said laughing, before jumping out of the window.

----

_Not long after that_

"Yo," he greeted, raising two fingers. He walked up to her desk with one hand in his pocket, the old, casual Kakashi. Though inside he was still burning with desire- he didn't want to be here, the only place where he wanted to be was at Iruka's place, in Iruka's bed, at Iruka's side. Well, not exactly at his _side_, but you know what I mean.

"Ah, Hatake," she said, pointing to the chair which indicated that he should sit down. He did as he was told and sat down, his face still a bit flushed from the five minutes before. Why? Why did he had to be summoned just at _that _moment? Couldn't she have waited for another two hours? He was _longing _for him. "Glad you could make it so soon," she continued. Kakashi snorted inwardly at this and thought that perhaps the old woman called him on purpose, just to irritate him and to interrupt their hot, steamy, se- "I'm sure you want to know why you're here, so I'll get straight to the point, Hatake," she continued, interrupting his thoughts. "I need you for a mission. It will take approximately one week to complete this- and that will also be the exact time when you're apartment is read, but I don't think you'd want to return there-" She winked at him. "You'll be with Genma and Gai on your mission, so please take care of yourself. Oh, and say goodbye to Iruka first- that's an order. And tell him to drop by my office, please." She winked at him before he left, blushing slightly at what she had said.

------

_15 minutes later_

He walked into her office, bowing slightly. "Good afternoon, Hokage-sama."

She looked up at him and the first thing she noticed was that he looked rather flushed. Grinning to herself, she motioned that he should sit down.

The young man had no idea why he was being summoned- was it another mission? He didn't quite understand, and frankly, he didn't really want to think about it either. Well, he _couldn't _think about it, due to the things that had happened when Kakashi came back from the Hokage.

_"So? You have to go on another mission?" He asked him, watching the slightly older male standing in front of him. _

_"Yeah, I should leave right away," he replied, grinning as he saw the disappointment in the other man's eyes. Kakashi pulled down his mask and pressed his lips onto Iruka's, kissing him deeply, while his tongue was begging for entrance. Iruka, however, refrained himself. It wasn't an easy job, but the thing he had learned when living with Hatake Kakashi, was that you should never, ever give him his way or else he would never do anything. Besides, they could wait a while longer. Well, at least Iruka could, but he was doubting the perverted Jounin could last any longer. It was rather amusing._

_"Nope, you have a mission to do!" He said, resembling something of a mother. Kakashi chuckled. _

_"I'm sure Gai and Genma are willing to wait," he said, slipping his arms around the other's waist and pulling him closer and kissing him again. Iruka could barely control himself when that happened. But, since he was a teacher of a bunch of little kids who could easily floor the most fearsome ninja with their cute looks, could handle this with ease. Therefore, he broke the kiss- he had to refrain himself from laughing at the disappointed face Kakashi made. _

_"No, you have to go now! I promise we can have hot, kinky sex later, but go now," he said, blushing slightly when he realised the words he had just used... was that really him talking? _

_"But Iruka-chaaaaaan," Kakashi whined, looking rather Naruto-ish. _

_"No, and don't you dare call me 'chan' again!" _

Iruka still regretted the fact that he had ignored Kakashi's obvious request for sex… but it couldn't be helped. Iruka was a responsible man and he needed to keep that image up. I mean, what would the village think when they found out the young teacher was being called to the _Hokage _and had been late due to the fact he had been smexing with Konoha's infamous Copy Nin? He'd die of embarrassment.

"I see Kakashi has been keeping you busy?" A familiar blush was creeping its way up on Iruka's cheek when she said this. Kakashi didn't _tell _her, did he? "I just wanted to compliment you on doing such a fantastic job with Konohamaru," she continued, ignoring the blush. "If it hadn't been for you, he would be dead now. So I just wanted to thank you. Have you ever considered becoming a Jounin? You are strong enough, and more than capable of becoming one. Why not try out?" Iruka hesitated for a moment.

"Well, I'm happy with my current job," he finally said firmly. "I've never really liked the idea of killing- or getting killed. And I love the kids, I love teaching them. I don't think I could really be happy doing anything else." The Godaime looked at him for a second, eyeing him with great interest. She needed to refrain herself from grinning.

"Ah, so you'd like to have children someday?" Iruka seemed to think about it for a moment, but then shook his head. It certainly surprised her.

"No, absolutely not," he laughed. "I mean, I like them, but I couldn't have them of my own… it would be too much trouble! What if they turn out like me when I was younger? I couldn't bare that… though it would be my proper punishment for when I gave my sensei's a hard time."

"Ah, I can understand that," the Hokage said, laughing. "That would be a scary thought." She had an answer she was satisfied with- after all, if Iruka would be with Kakashi and he wanted to have kids of his own… well, that would be practically impossible. No, not practically- it _would _be impossible (A/N: No way I'm going to make an Mpreg-story! Sorry for all you fans out there, but I couldn't imagine Kakashi or Iruka getting pregnant -laughs-). "Thank you for your time, Iruka," she said smiling at him.

Iruka nodded, stood up and gave her another small bow. Now all he needed to do was survive without Kakashi for a week.


End file.
